


R

by Morrilla



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, LGBT, Mat - Freeform, Multi, OUAT - Freeform, Regina Mills - Freeform, Roni - Freeform, emma swan - Freeform, swanqueen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-30 06:27:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12647979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morrilla/pseuds/Morrilla
Summary: This is an AU story about a very different version of Roni, I wanted to create a fic based on how I imagined Roni before the 7th season even started. I hope you'll enjoy it!Trigger Warnings: Violence, Rape/non-con, assault.I do not own the fictional characters Roni and Emma Swan in this fic.____Roni, a bartender in her late twenties, works and lives at Mat's, a bar in the outskirts of Seattle. She sleeps on a couch that Mat, her boss, has offered her and doesn't get along very well with her colleagues even though they're some of the very few people in her life that she's got. With a rough past and a dark looking future, Roni could never imagine how the pretty blonde in red leather at the end of the bar would change her look on life so drastically and neither could this married officer, whose name is Emma Swan.





	1. Red & Floral Leather

A fist is firmly holding onto a handful of curls as they push her down to the kitchen floor in the back of the pub where it’s empty of people and the boss is absent.

“Are you sure you prefer chicks? With this ass any man would want to fuck you.” He says and spanks her hard enough to leave a mark. She tries to grab his arms to avoid it at all cost, but fails. She is barely uncomfortable with it anymore, just furious.

“And the legs man, don’t forget about those when she’s wearing shorts. I wouldn’t say no to spreading them.” A guy in the background adds with a disgusting smirk on his face.’Luckily’ Roni cannot see it since she’s facing the ground. Fingers starts to sneak in under her clothes but she moves away to escape them, trying to bite and kick her male colleagues that she has no chance against if they’d decide to impulsively do something to her.

“BOYS!!”

Finally - Mat enters the kitchen. 

He’s the boss, the owner of the place and won’t tolerate any messing around in his pub.

“Get to work, _NOW_.” He points towards the bar as if they were dogs and they immediately let go of Roni who can finally breathe when she gets rid of the pressure on her back and head.

“Roni, get up.”

The brunette sighs, brushes off her black, sleeveless shirt and blue jeans before she moves heavily to get up from the checkered, black and white floor. A couple of her necklaces are twisted and the sound of her untangling them echoes through the room. The kitchen is a quite abandoned area, always have been since Mat opened the place. He never wanted to restart the restaurant it had been when he took over. Instead he made it a pub, where people could go to drown their sorrows or watch a good game of football together. The room was now mostly used for dishes and trash and Roni was always the one taking initiative to handle those at the end of the day, which the boys enjoyed to take advantage of. She is the only woman working here and she has had to put up with a lot, way more than she should.

A big palm is suddenly shoved onto her back with a loud thud. “You okay there?” It’s Mat.

Roni bobs her head.  
“Okay.”

Even if he asked as if he cared, he never really bothered to help. He knew that the boys were onto her like disobedient dogs but he had never done anything to stop it. Probably because of his rough past in prison and jail. Over there, you didn’t mind others business or you’d get into twice as much trouble and respect for women was nothing they learned in there since there were no women around. He was a street rat, living of off his drug business and pitbull fights and so were his beloved male employes, therefore there were a connection between them. Roni on the other hand, was thrown out of her home by her family as they found out about her, according to them, sinful preferences and Mat had taken care of her ever since because if it was anything that could pinch at his cold heart, it was street rats. He believes that anything is better than living out on the streets and perhaps that’s why he never saw the insults as that much of a problem. It’s worse out there, he always said.

“Come on, the customers are waiting.”

The brunette runs her fingers through her curly hair and takes a quick look at her reflection in the glass window on the broken, old oven before walking back out to the drunks by the bar. It’s usually the regulars hanging out there on daily basis, playing billiard and drinking whiskey, but there’s something that catches her attention today. There’s a young woman at the end of the bar having a beer, but what’s particularly special about her and makes the brunette curious is her bright red leather jacket and sun blonde hair.  
Roni is not the shy type. She walks straight up to this stranger without any second thoughts and leans onto the bar in between them.

“Cerveza, huh? That’s not very lady-like.” The brunette states with a faint smirk whilst pouring herself a drink. The blonde looks up, her eyes are intensively green and her stunned expression reveals that she’s is not very used to this kind of surprising approach.

“... Excuse me?” The attempt to sound a little offended fails as a tiny smile creeps in the corner of her mouth when Roni cocks a brow.

“I see no boyfriend around, I assume that it’s your beer.” She winks and Emma cannot help but to blush. She tries to ignore it and answers with a shrug though, as if she knew how to push Roni’s right buttons.

“New here?” The brunette asks in between two orders and while she pours a big glass of beer she throws an eye at the blonde every now and then. There’s something about her that makes it hard not to and the fact that she is currently struggling to get her jacket off does not make it easier.

“In the city, no. At this bar, yes.” The blonde answers before she takes a big mouth of beer from her glass when she has successfully gotten out of the leather. To be honest she had never even heard of the bar, she just happened to walk by this afternoon after work and thought it was a good idea to take a break from all the paperwork she had piled up on her desk at the station.’ _Mat’s’, it doesn’t even sound very attractive_.

“I see,” Roni murmurs curiously, “How come you ended up here? Relationship issues?” She keeps pouring all kinds of alcoholic drinks into different glasses that she later hands over to the thirsty or already drunk customers.

“Not really. It’s just work that’s killing me.” She rolls her emerald eyes as the corner of her mouth twitches before she puts the drink down to the polished marble surface.

“So what’s your profession?” she interrupts herself mid sentence, “ _Wait!_ Let me guess... Personal trainer?” The blonde giggles and shakes her head, amused by how she has already spotted the brunette checking out her arms from the moment she leant onto the bar.

“I’m flattered, but it’s the wrong answer.” Her gaze comes back to meet the intense, concentrated one in front of her that is examining every detail of the blonde to try to find just any kind of hint.

“Professional athlete?” She guesses. The other woman laughs aloud at this but the bartender just cocks a brow in response. “It must be _something_ physical? I mean-” This time she’s obviously glaring towards the blonde’s toned biceps.

“Hm… A bit I guess. But it’s not even close to sports.” She can’t help but chuckle once more, “Last shot, come on.”

“... A _carpenter?_ ”

“Jeez girl, I’m glad you’re working as a bartender and not a psychic.” She laughs. Roni evidently rolls her eyes but a smirk comes upon her lips nonetheless.

“Come on now, tell me.” The flirtatious look on the darker woman’s face almost makes her cocky when she prepares her answer,

“I’m a cop.”

Roni could swear her heart skipped a beat and unfortunately it’s as obvious from the look on her face because her smile quickly drops and leaves her with an empty stare glued to the woman before her for a brief moment, as if she had said something wrong. The police is the absolute last kind of human they want in their pub and that’s just why they chose a small place on a rather hidden street in the outskirts of town to start their business in the first place.

“... If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some work to do. It was nice talking to you, chica.” Just as Roni turns around and is about to head over to the kitchen the blonde frowns and shouts after her,

“What? Hey! I don’t even know your name!”

“And I don’t know yours, so we’re even.” She says and keeps walking, but the blonde doesn’t give up that easily,

“It begins with R. I saw your necklace.”  
The brunette stops abruptly and throws an eye over her shoulder. It takes a few seconds before she eventually opens her mouth to speak,

“Regina,” she says simply, “It’s Regina.”  
The blonde smiles from across the room.

“Emma.” She says, before Roni, who had just lied about her name to the pretty cop, nods and keeps walking towards the next room.

In the kitchen she finds that there’s a lot of trash to take out and this would be the best excuse to not have to stand in the bar with that woman. She grabs the two big, black bags and throws one over her shoulder before she heads through the bar towards the front door. The heavy trash bags go directly into the big container next to the building and when they’re out of sight, she fiddles with a pack of cigarettes in one of the pockets of her floral leather jacket. Once they’re pulled out she puts one cigarette between her lips and succeeds to light it at her first try despite the windy environment. Just a minute later, together with the cloud Roni blows into the air, a bell is heard from the entrance behind her.

“You’re avoiding me.” It’s the blonde cop’s voice and Roni sighs and her eyes rolls into the back of her head.

“Are you following me now?” She asks without turning to look at her before putting the cigarette back into her mouth.

“I got curious about you.” Emma admits and takes another step forward.

“Is that so?” Roni asks, clearly unimpressed as well as uninterested.

“You freaked out when I told you I’m a cop.” The blonde states as she examines the bartender from top to toe, “What have you done?”  
Roni blows out a big, grey cloud of smoke and scoffs,

“Isn’t that your job to find out, officer?” She answers coldly and the other woman lets out a chuckle in defeat and crosses her arms on her chest.

“Okay, so, what’s your name?” Emma asks, “Your real name.” Roni rolls her eyes once more and gives the cop in front of her a suspicious glare as she hesitates to answer. “Come on, I’m not investigating, that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you here?” The brunette holds on to the intense eye contact.

“To have a break.” The cop smiles. The brunette keeps her eyes on her in silence for another moment. The smile looks too genuine and naive to be fake and despite the uniform and badge she seems all but threatening.

“... Roni.”

Emma reaches out a hand for her to shake as if they met anew but Roni turns it down, butts her cigarette and turns to approach the entrance.

“Hey, woman! There’s no need to be rude.” She throws her hands up in defeat. Roni ignores it and pulls the handle on the door.

“I’ve got a job to get back to.” She grumbles and enters the pub, leaving a quite offended police officer to her own thoughts on the sidewalk. Even though she is a cop she has a life outside of work and feelings that she sometimes wish she could ignore, not only while solving a case or as she gets verbally harassed by all the criminals she takes care of daily, but also in moments like this. She feels ridiculous for taking it so personally, she had merely known this woman for half an hour, yet her words felt like a punch to her guts.

\---

Right inside the entrance Roni runs into Mat and before he gets to open his mouth she pushes him aside from the crowded bar.

“We have a cop snooping around the place. Blonde, pretty, red jacket.” She moves past him before he has answered and he throws an eye at the door that opens as Roni has finished her sentence.

Emma looks around but cannot see Roni who has disappeared into the kitchen to get some clean wine glasses for a couple by one of the tables. She walks up to the bar where there’s a pretty muscular, big man now standing, discussing football with one of the customers on the opposite side. She takes a seat and notices pretty quickly that there are a couple of eyes on her, and as she looks up she gets it confirmed as the man is throwing an eye her way every now and then before eventually coming over to her end.

“So, what can I get you?” He asks simply and Emma begins to stutter, his appearance almost slightly startles her. His arms are covered in tattoos of pitbull dogs and guns, snakes and roses. The glasses are on the verge of breaking as he handles them with his large hands and strong grip.

“Oh I-... I just had a beer, I’m all good, just resting my feet.” Emma offers a half smile and takes her eyes off of the man in front of her, but they snap right back as he speaks.

“Only customers at the bar and tables ma’am. We have a couch by the entrance if you’re waiting for someone or… resting your feet.” He informs and leaves her quite embarrassed in her seat. She gets up, walks over to the door and takes a last glance over her shoulder, but no Roni. She leaves, with an unfamiliar heavy feeling in her chest and she doesn’t even know why.

\---

“Will she come back?” Mat’s voice echoes between the four, hard kitchen walls.

“How would I know?” Roni frowns and shrugs carelessly as she cleans the last dirty glasses from the evening. She had almost forgot about the blonde.

“I saw you talking to her, got any information?” He’s standing in the doorway, his tone is serious and he doesn't let go of Roni with his eyes.

“No- or well, her name is Emma. That’s all I got.” She says and continues doing the dishes, thinking that Mat would let it go, but he doesn’t. Not that easily. Annoyed by the fact that Roni doesn’t seem to take this seriously he takes a step forward to get her attention.

“You know that if she finds out who I am, I’m going to have to-”

“I know. I know Mat.” The wet rag slams down the sink and she turns around to meet his eyes. “She won’t find out a thing.”

Mat nods once before he slowly turns around and leaves the brunette in the dark kitchen the her own thoughts, that strangely is back to the pretty blonde in red leather...


	2. An Emotional Bullfight

A thud to her hip makes Roni lose her balance, the tray drastically tilts and glass scatters on the wooden floor behind the bar. No one saw the collide between the colleagues so all eyes are judgingly glaring at Roni while Will moves on towards the kitchen with a smirk on his face and goes completely unnoticed. The brunette gets down on her knees, sighing heavily, as she begins to pick up the sharp pieces off the floor. She’s so used to this now that she doesn’t even care to get mad. It will happen again.

“Roni,” heavy steps approaches her from behind and she doesn’t even need to turn around to know who it is, “When you’re done cleaning that up, I need you in the office.”

It isn’t an office. It is more like a small storeroom, consisting of a desk, a worn armchair, several cabinets and drawers full of papers and other things that are well hidden from the public. He’s also keeping a big safe in the corner that they all have been strictly told not to touch, although they already know that it contains guns and money that doesn’t belong to the bar. Mat had his secrets that no one dared to ask him about. He always kept the door locked, even when he was present in the room.

As Roni enters the messy space, she finds Mat holding up a jacket in front of her with a not so amused expression on his face. The bright red color makes her lips part and eyes grow with realization.

   
“She will be back.” Mat states sternly. Her dark eyes move to meet his, mouth still slightly open before she shakes her head to calm him down.

“Don’t worry I’ll take care of it.”

“You better do it nicely.” He throws the jacket towards Roni who catches it midair.  
  
“Por supuesto, boss.”

  
She throws the jacket over her shoulder and walks into her room across the small hallway. The wallpaper is rugged and there are clothes lying on the floor and over the armrest of the couch she’s gotten from Mat to sleep on. He didn’t have much to offer when he gave her a place to stay, but it was more than enough for Roni and after all, that couch was hella comfortable. Hoop earrings and necklaces all made of gold lies thrown on the desk by the little window to the right in the room, cuff bracelets and sterling silver rings in its open drawers. Some are stolen and some are gifts, almost none of them are bought with her own money. She wears a gold pendant around her neck with the letter R written in rhinestones on that she got from Mat, who taught her that the letter can mean anything and if she needs to lie about her name, it’d seem more reliable if she picked a name that starts with R. Yesterday was the first time she took advantage of that trick, although it didn’t last for long. She hangs the leather jacket right next to the doorway on top of her own black one, painted with a floral pattern before she starts to wonder, how was she going to find a way to contact the blonde officer though? What was her name… Oh, right, Emma.

\---

 

Emma takes a sip of her boiling hot coffee as she stares out into nothing, completely devoured by her thoughts when her husband puts a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She jumps in her seat and turns around only to glare at the man behind her.

 

“Gosh Killian, you scared the crap out of me..!” For some reason, Killian looks genuinely worried when he sits down on a kitchen chair in front of her.

  
“What’s on your mind, love? You’ve been oddly quiet today and you seem to be in your own little world every time I try to speak to you.” Emma looks down on her cup between her hands in her lap and frowns,

“Well I have a lot at work, there’s a case where a murderer is on the run, that I can’t seem to solve and it has me slowly going mad… Nothing to worry about though, you know I always find them.” She looks up and offers him a brief smile.

“Aye, I hope the murderer isn’t a woman who works in a bar…” Killian sits back and hands the confused woman a cellphone, “Some lady that goes by the name Regina has tried to reach you all morning.”

She tries her best to hide the smile that creeps up in the corner of her mouth when the name reaches her ears,

  
“Oh! It’s Roni…” She muses. Killian looks utterly lost.

“Wasn’t her name Regina?” Now a chuckle escapes her nonetheless and she shakes her head,

“It’s complicated.” She unlocks her phone to call her back, but the number seems to be anonymous. “Crap…” Killian looks questioning at her and she only notices as her attention goes from the phone back to him.

“I’m just gonna look the number up on my computer, I’ll be right back and we’ll have breakfast together, okay?” She’s already standing up, kissing Killian's cheek before she runs off upstairs to get her laptop. As soon as she’s found it, opened it and searched for “Mat’s bar”, she writes in the number and calls without second thoughts. After just a couple of tones, someone picks up.  
  
  
“Hello and welcome to Mat’s, how can I help you?”

It’s Mat himself answering.

“Hi, uh, my name is Emma Swan, I was recently called by one of your employees, I guess her name was… Regina?” She tries, unsure of which name to use.

When Mat realizes that it’s the blonde cop calling, not to mention that Roni has called her up herself, his voice completely changes,  
  
“You must have got the wrong number, girl.”

“No, no I’m pretty sure this is it. Brown, curly hair? Dressed in jeans and a tank top?” She won’t give up. Mat sighs indiscreetly into the phone.

“One minute.” He mumbles before everything goes quiet as if he holds a thumb over the microphone.

  
Mat walks straight up to Roni, grabs her arm and pulls her away from the crowd. Leaning in threateningly close, he growls,

“What did I tell you about private phone calls from this phone, huh?!” Roni looks surprised and slightly confused,

“I haven’t-”

“Your favorite cop is on the line.” He holds the phone in front of her and then it hits her,

“Oh! She must have looked it up on the net, I called her from my own, with hidden number of course..! Take it easy man.” She grabs the phone and turns away from her boss to answer without having him bothering her anymore.

“Hola princess, how did ya get my number? I don't recall you asking me for it?” She asks teasingly and she can almost hear Emma’s cute eye roll through the phone.

“You’re the one who called, so you tell me.” Roni cocks a brow and Emma’s sure she could feel it and it felt like victory, or at least a start of a dangerous game.

“You forgot your jacket.” Roni informs shortly.

Game over.

“Oh…” The blonde tries to not sound too disappointed, “Right, I’ll come and pick it up by lunch if that’s okay.” For some reason, her heart sinks and she suddenly feels out of breath.

“Perfect, I have my lunch break by twelve.” The bartender exclaims.

“Thanks… See you then.” Emma mutters. Roni blows a kiss into the phone and hangs up before she quickly goes back to work. Emma, on the other hand, can’t let go of the device. She feels like throwing it across the room in frustration. Why did she believe Roni wanted something to do with her in the first place? Why did this affect her? She forgot her precious jacket and Roni was kind enough to look up her number to make sure it got back to her. She should feel grateful.

She puts the phone down her pocket and walks with heavy steps down the stairs and back into the kitchen where Killian has already started buttering the toasts.

  
“How did it go?” He asks, with such a warm smile that it actually eases some of that frustration she was infused with.

“I forgot my jacket at that bar I visited yesterday, I’ll just pick it up around lunch.” She explains and walks up to the handy man, with dark scruffy beard and bed hair to hug him from behind as he pours some more coffee for them both.

“I can go with you if you want?” He offers while lifting the mugs off of the countertop.

“It’s fine, really. If you want to increase your cooking skills even further, you’re welcome to make me lunch though..!” She smiles childishly and Killian laughs as he sets the table with his masterpiece of a breakfast.

  
\---

 

The morning is coming to an end and the clock strikes twelve. Roni has just thrown two aggressive drunks out of the place and written the weekly order list when Mat tells her she’s got half an hour off from now. Her lunch break routine consists of one cigarette, one sandwich with beer and ten minutes of phone scrolling, and probably another cigarette while she's at it. She rips her jacket from the hanger in her room and walks out her private exit, leading to the back of the building. That's where she feels like she always can relax. It takes less than two minutes for the blonde to show up outside in her yellow bug and this time a blue leather jacket.

  
“Hey.” Emma slowly approaches her, looking around to see if there’s any jacket in sight, “Where is it?”

“Where is what? I’m no psychic, remember?” Roni takes another whiff as a faint smirk spreads across her face.

“My jacket.” Emma points out as it is very obvious what she meant.

“Oh! What a shame, I thought you came for me…” She winks before she throws the cigarette butt to the ground and puts it out with her heel. “Come on in.”

Emma can’t deny the slightly uncomfortable arousal that she feels every time Roni flirts with her, yet she does everything to not make it show. She enters what looks like a teenager’s room. A messy, small and quite rugged room with rock posters on the walls and loud music playing from an old radio standing among jewelry and roll paper for cigarettes on an old oak desk.

   
“Is this where you live?” Emma asks, without a hint of any particular opinion about it. Roni turns to face her,

“Yep.” Their eyes lock for a moment and Emma realizes rather quickly that this woman doesn’t own much. She spots no bed, no TV either. There’s a tiny bathroom at the end of the room to the right and a door, that she figured probably leads to the bar, to the left from where she's standing.

“Here it is,” Roni suddenly interrupts her daydreaming, “Your red muleta.”

“My what?” Roni doesn't answer but throws it up and around her just like a matador and pulls her in closer.

“It looks good on you.” She murmurs and bites her plump lip. Emma is frozen in her spot and cannot take her eyes off Roni’s eyes or mouth and feels how the blush once again begins to creep up her neck. That’s all it takes for her to realize she’s got to keep it together.

“I should go, you probably have work to get back to…” Emma takes a step back and folds the jacket over her arm.

“I’ve got five more minutes, no need to rush.” Roni answers and takes a step closer again. They just look at each other for a moment before Emma breaks the tension,

“Thank you, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” Roni smiles widely and the officer cannot help but smile back before turning around to leave but the brunette’s fingers stroke her arm and makes her stop.

“Hey I said I’ve got five more minutes, why you runnin’, girl?”

This time Emma can’t avoid letting her cheeks turn red. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and looks at Roni with a chuckle,

  
“Sorry, I… My husband has made me lunch and I promised him I’d be home in time.” Green eyes meet brown and they can spot how something suddenly disappears in them.

“Oh.” The word of realization escapes Roni’s lips before she’s able to stop it, “I shouldn’t be bothering you then.” She offers the blonde a brief, half smile before gesturing with her hand towards the door as a permission to leave. Emma simply nods and walks out the exit, not knowing if she just hurt Roni or herself more.

  
The second Emma’s out of the building, Roni slams her fist and a foot to the wall. Not because she’s excessively fond of the officer, they have just recently met, but because she feels fooled. Fooled by herself for believing that she could flirt with just anyone who caught her attention. Who does she think she is? Before she overthinks the whole situation she’s going to try to forget about the blonde. She was, apparently, married after all. She should be happy they hadn’t gotten to know each other very well before she found out. She slams the door to the bar open and storms out, determined to get something else on her mind and hopefully also a shot down her throat, but just as she’s out of her room she runs into Andrew, one of her colleagues. 

  
“Where are you going?” He asks and grabs onto her shirt.

“None of your business, _pal._ ” She growls and rips her clothes out of his grip. He simply chuckles.

“Oh, but it is if I'm the one deciding.” He nods towards Will and within seconds he’s behind Roni to block the way.

“Oh fuck off, go take a hike, both of you!” They suddenly laugh sarcastically but stops just as fast, and before Roni has the chance to try getting them out of the way, Andrew’s arms are wrapped tightly around her waist from behind, lifting her off the floor. “ _Let go of me!_ ” She kicks in the air and whirls to get out of his hold but it’s all in vain. They throw her back into her room and closes the door behind them before pushing her down the sofa.  
  
  
“Why so mad, babe?” Andrew asks as he holds her arms above her head against the pillow beneath her head, smirking as she frowns heavily in frustration.

“Shut up you _jerk!_ ” She spits and makes an attempt to bite his arms, but fails and Andrew runs a hand down her chest, groping her breasts and tugging her shirt up. Roni can’t escape and she knows it. Suddenly the door hits the wall next to them and a deafening gunshot rings through the room. Everyone freezes and Roni gets loose. It is Mat standing in the doorway and on the opposite side of the room a smoking hole decorates the concrete. He aims the metal weapon towards Andrew who swallows in fear,  
  
  
“You. Walk outta here or I’ll make sure you can _never_ walk again.” His tone is so firm and full of fury that no one dares to open their mouth. Andrew runs out of the room like a scared rat and Will, who fell to the floor in surprise when the loud noise hit his ears, doesn’t move from his spot until Mat’s glare eventually lands on him.  
  
“You too.” In less than five seconds, Roni’s the only one left in her room. She doesn’t even look at Mat from where she’s sitting on the edge of the couch, just feeling slightly uncomfortable and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. She can feel how Mat throws an eye at her before he leaves, probably to make sure she’s unharmed and okay but that’s something he’d never admit. The room fills with complete silence after the door is shut closed again.

  
\---

 

As the door opens, a smell of freshly made lasagna hits Emma’s face. She closes the door behind her and carefully approaches the kitchen, where Killian is standing in a total mess.

   
“Wow, captain cook, way to go!” She laughs and notices how he hasn’t had the time to set the table yet. “I’ll help you out.” But Killian is fast to stop her and stand in the way of the doorway,

“No, no love! I’m making you lunch, not vice versa, go and read a book meanwhile.” Emma’s surely taken by surprise. Never before had he offered to cook, let alone lasagna and although she certainly didn’t complain, she couldn’t help but wonder what the occasion was. Anyways, she makes her way upstairs and grabs a book as she had been told, but something on her mind makes it hard to concentrate on the text. A certain brunette to be exact. Roni had been on her mind since the minute she left the bar and something tells her there’s a reason for that. She has a feeling the brunette got hurt in some way and that she should try to reach out just to see if she’s doing alright, but why? What did she say that could’ve possibly offended her? Minutes pass by and no reading is getting done, instead, the blonde is fiddling with her phone, considering whether to try to contact the bartender again or not. She doesn’t have her number and she wouldn’t want to interrupt Mat again, he didn’t seem too keen on her. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. It’s not like they’re friends and perhaps she would think it is weird that she calls. She closes her eyes when the sound of Killian’s voice travels up the staircase. The food is ready, but she is not.


	3. Under the Skin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had no time to go thru this chapter and check for grammar/spelling mistakes because my comp recently crashed... Will edit it later.

The lunch is fine. A little unsalted, a little burned but to be fair, Killian has just learned to cook so who is he to blame? A fully bloomed, red rose is standing in a thin, white vase in the middle among the pots and plates. Candles are lit around it, all on top of a big, white cloth spread across the wooden dining table.    
  
“This is great..!” Emma mumbles between the bites. 

 

“You think so?” Killian sounds happily surprised.

 

“You did a good job, I mean, you could’ve added some salt but other than that it’s really good!” Emma nods and her scrubby husband smirks proudly. 

 

”Hey I was thinking,” Killian starts while cutting into the pasta on his plate, ”Tomorrow when we both have a day off, what about we go out and grab a drink together? I could really need one after all of this paperwork.” 

 

Emma almost chokes at his suggestion, she puts the back of her hand over her mouth to prevent spitting out the food and her eyes grows wide as they set on the man across the table. 

 

”Really?” She almost laughs, ”I thought drinking was something we did alone or with or friends, isn’t that what you use to say?”

 

”Uhh… I might have said that but that doesn’t mean I can’t change my mind?” 

 

Emma bursts into a chuckle and Killian is impatiently waiting for an answer. 

 

“Well then… It’s a date.” She confirms and meets his gaze. 

 

“I thought, perhaps you could show me the place you were at yesterday?” He asks just as Emma thought the conversation was over and had just begun eating again. Her eyes snap up to meet his again. Was that what it was all about? 

 

“Why that place?” She asks while chewing a piece of burned lasagna. 

 

“It seemed like you liked it there, you were there for quite some time, forgot your jacket, got a call, went back there faster than I could ask what was happening…” 

Emma rolls her eyes to the back of her head, of course this was too good to be true.

 

“Are you  _ jealous _ ? Is that what it is all about?” Her voice has dropped into an annoyed tone and she has suddenly lost her appetite. 

 

“Should I be?” 

 

“Oh cut it Killian, I was there for a beer, forgot my jacket on the chair and the bartender, Regina, called to make sure it got back to me and you know how much that jacket means to me.” She argues and begins to clear the table from her things, she had finished her meal anyway. 

 

“Who’s Mat?” He asks sternly from where he’s sitting as she’s putting her plate into the dishwasher. 

 

“He owns the bar. Why?” 

 

“Hm,” he mumbles, “Nothing.” 

 

“Believe me, Mat is the last kind of person I’d hook up with.” Emma mumbles as she clears the rest of the table. 

 

“So you  _ do  _ know him?” The brunette continues and Emma sighs aloud,

 

“He seemed to dislike the fact that I am a cop, visiting their bar. I don’t know what they’re hiding but clearly there’s something shady going on.” 

 

“And how did he get that information about you?”

 

Emma spins around in frustration and glares at her husband with wide eyes and a frown on her face,

“Killian?! What’s the matter with you??” 

 

He puts his hands in the air in defeat and takes his eyes off his wife as if to sarcastically excuse himself for even opening his mouth. 

 

“Seriously Emma,” he starts just as she’s about to leave the kitchen but stops at the sound of his voice, “I just want to go out and have a nice evening with you. Nothing else, I promise.” 

She looks at him for a while before offering him a weak smile that she just couldn’t hold back.

“Okay…”

 

\---

 

The feeling in her gut as she has to walk back out to the bar is sickening, just like all of the times this happens. She doesn’t want to see them, doesn’t want to be near them and doesn’t want to work with them as if nothing has happened. She thinks she should be used to it by now, but she feels just as bad every time and she beats herself up for it. Despite all the things she’s been through, these incidents never seem to get less hard to handle. Nevertheless, she walks out through the door and can already hear the voices she despise so indescribably much. She walks past Mat, lightly brushing his arm with her hand as a thanks before getting straight back to work. She can feel his humble eyes on her neck as she walks away. Andrew is standing just three feet away from her when she starts filling a glass with ice under the bar.

 

”Just you wait.” He half whispers as he also gets something down under. She doesn’t even look at him but continues working. 

 

—

“I’m just gonna go and powder my nose.” Emma starts getting out of her seat, “Will you watch my purse for me?” 

 

“Aight, I’ll stay right here dating with my rum.” The brunette smirks and cocks a brow, thinking he’s funny. Emma just shakes her head with a chuckle before heading to the bar. 

Roni is nowhere to be seen. Mat has been bartending since they got there and it's strange, because Roni always works from the pub opens until it closes. 

 

”Mat!” Emma shouts and she can see from afar that he hates hearing his name coming from her mouth. She still doesn’t know why, but she’ll probably figure it out sooner or later like she does with everything. ”Is Roni around?” She asks as she has gotten slightly closer to the bar counter. 

 

”Why? Forgot something?” He asks dryly, tired of her already.

 

”No, I just… I wanted to talk to her.” Emma responds innocently with a light shrug. 

 

”She’s busy this time of the day, you’ll have to come back after the closing hours.” He informs and moves on to the next person in line. Emma sighs, but gets an idea. A bad one but what does it matter, Roni didn’t seem too refined either, she probably wouldn’t mind.

She walks out the front door, Mat doesn’t even pay attention, and sneaks around the building. She heads towards the backdoor to Roni’s room that she had entered the last time she was here and as she reaches it, she knocks twice. No one opens. She knocks again but before her knuckles hit the door a second time it slides open by itself as if it wasn’t completely shut from the beginning and Emma carefully grabs the handle to open it up wider.

  
“Roni? Roni, are you in here..?” She tries when she has taken a step over the threshold, into the room. No response. She takes another couple of steps inside and looks around. To her surprise, she finds the brunette bartender lying passed out on the sofa and her speed instantly increases as she walks over and kneels down besides her.    
  
“Hey…” She tries to shake her lightly, no response. She checks her pulse, just in case. It’s slow, and so is her breathing. Something isn’t quite right. She shakes her again and this time adds a light slap to her cheek but she’s just lying here. Just as she’s about to grab her arm to pull her up into a sitting position, she notices something in the corner of the eye and looks down. Roni has needle marks in the arm fold and Emma’s hands quickly move to gently touch them in horror.    
  
“No… No Roni, please don’t say-” Her eyes dart to the floor and as she feared, she finds a syringe, a spoon two feet away and leftovers of white powder all over the rug. She has no idea how much she has taken, or for how long this has been going on. Was this why she had freaked out about her being a cop? 

She grabs her arm once again and pulls her up into the sitting position she intended to earlier and cups her cheeks to prevent her head from falling to the side.    
  
“Roni, do you hear me? Look at me. You have to wake up..!” She keeps trying to get  _ any _ sort of contact with her, but she’s unconscious and won’t answer. 

Crap. Should she get Mat? Did he know about this already? What would he do to her if he found out that she, a cop, knew about this? Will Roni die if she doesn’t get her help? Suddenly the brunette on the couch coughs.    
  
“Roni! Hey, hey sweetie, I’m here…” She soothes and strokes her hair, pushing back a strand behind her ear. She doesn’t even reflect over the fact that she used the word ‘sweetie’, it just came out naturally. The other woman all of a sudden bends over and Emma’s reflexes are extremely alert and in a split second she grabs a trash can and puts it in front of her and holds the curls for Roni as she throws up. She’s all shaky and the officer tries her best to keep her awake and as close to her as possible to keep her safe and stable. How did she end up like this? She knew there was something going on with her but she really didn’t think it was this bad. 

 

The door opens.     
  
“What are you doing here?!” Mat growls as he approaches them threateningly and Emma quickly gets away from Roni in actual fear. Not many people or situations made her afraid, but right now, right here, she is vulnerable and she knows this man could end her in a heartbeat if he wanted to.

 

“She- I… I found her like this and-” She stutters when Mat interrupts,   
  
“Shut your mouth!” His focus goes back to Roni and to Emma’s horrific surprise, he slaps her hard across the face. Roni whines, still not back into her full senses yet. The loud slap makes the blonde wince and shut her eyes closed, extremely uncomfortable with this whole situation. 

 

“Get yourself together, Roni!” He snarls before grabbing her stuff on the floor and throwing them straight into the trash, “You're not eighteen anymore, you have a job and responsibilities nowadays, in case you have forgotten.” 

 

“Hey, don’t be so harsh, she jus-“ Emma begins and tries to defend Roni but it just seems to upset Mat even more who cuts her off mid sentence,

 

“What did I  _ just  _ tell you?” His glare is so intense she actually keeps her mouth shut. “You didn't see  _ any  _ of this, do you understand?” The blonde nods once, then she looks back at Roni who’s lying down on her side in the sofa again, totally exhausted and she feels so helpless for not being able to do something. Even though she is completely against drugs and could actually arrest her for drug possession, she knows deep down that there has to be a reason for all of this. She don’t know why, but she’s starting to care about this woman and she would rather try to help her than put her in jail. 

“Now get out of here.” Mat growls and grabs Roni’s arm to get her to stand up. Emma takes a last glance at them before walking out the door with a lump in her stomach. How was she gonna save her?

 

Back out in the pub, Killian has ordered another glass of rum and spots Emma just as she exits the corridor next to the bar. She looks pale and something else that he cannot seem to figure out, but he gets up from their table and walks over to her to see what’s going on.   
  
“Love, what’s wrong? You look sick.” He asks and lies an arm around her waist as he guides her to their table. She sits down carefully in one of the chairs and with her elbows on the cold wood, she puts her forehead in her hands. How could she ever explain this to her husband? Does she even want to? What does he have to do with this? She doesn’t want to get him involved, it’s complicated as it is.    
  
“I’m just not feeling very well… “ she begins, “It’s nothing serious, just a migraine creeping up on me.” She lies.    
  
“Do you want us to continue the night back home instead? I can make some popcorn and we could watch a movie or whatever you prefer.”

She loves his generosity and how he always tries to be a gentleman in moments like this, but he isn’t always like that. He never does things that doesn’t suit him and he would never let Emma win an argument. He is stubborn and can actually get verbally abusive when they are fighting at their worst. Despite all of that, she loves him and would never let a few words destroy their marriage. 

 

“Sure. That’d be great...” She half smiles.

 

\---

 

When Mat has finally gotten Roni onto her feet,  grabs both of her arms and shakes her unresponsive and seemingly lifeless body,

 

“Roni,” He tries to get some kind of response but the brunette is still drifting in and out of conscience. “Roni, how much have you taken?” When he notices that her knees begins to give in, he allows her to slouch down into the sofa again and kneels down in front of her. He grabs her wrist and checks her heart rate, it should tell him enough. It’s lazy, not quite as even as it should. It’s an overdose, but it shouldn’t be life threatening. He shakes his head, aware of her situation and that she’s currently having a rough time, but he thought she was smarter than this. They all are struggling to get back from what the streetlife had done to them, but for Roni it was hard, because that’s all she’s known since she was fifteen. It is all she knows how to deal with, the only thing she is good at. When she gets uncomfortable or insecure in a situation, she always falls back into her old habits because at least then she has control.

  
  


Hours later a brunette with frizzy curls, dark circles under her eyes and a plagued expression on her face, stumbles out to the bar where Mat is cleaning the tables after the customers has called it a day. She leans onto a pillar in the middle of the room, unable to hold herself up straight. He doesn’t say anything. 

 

“Hey…” She croaks out. It’s the first word she’s said after she put that needle under her skin. The man in front of her still doesn’t respond, but cleans the area rather aggressively and she figures pretty quickly that he’s extremely disappointed with her. “... I’m sorry I just-”    
  
“I don’t want no excuse, R. There are no good excuses for the  _ shit _ you’re using.” He spits out and receives a sigh from the brunette behind him, who’s well aware of the fact, but decides to tell him anyway,

 

“I had a customer over yesterday and he... didn’t quite stick to what we agreed on.” She states, trying to make it sound casual but Mat can hear the slight tremble in her voice at the end of her sentence. Finally their eyes meet and he stops wiping the wooden surface. 

 

“A customer in the bar… or your room?” The disappointment in his voice hasn’t disappeared. She doesn’t answer and she knows he’ll figure it out by doing so. “You have to stop.” He sighs, truly frustrated. 

 

“You know I can’t.” She almost whispers and her boss clenches his hands onto the wet furniture in front of him as he takes a deep breath not to snap at her. 

 

“But you have to.” He notes clearly and is just about to continue his occupation when Roni opens her mouth again,

 

“How else will I get the money I owe him?!” She cries, knowing that if anyone should understand, it’s Mat. “You know how this will end if-”    
He spins around, walks up close to the smaller woman and suddenly all the words come out of his mouth like truculent barks,

 

“You owe him NOTHING, he’s NOT getting ANY money and I want you to  _ SHUT UP _ about him. Not another  _ WORD _ , do you hear me?!”    
  
Roni just keeps looking at him, straight into his eyes, knowing that he’s heart is aching at this moment and cannot judge him for just yelling at her. Venom had taken everything away from him and he knew that he wasn’t going to stop. He had sworn to destroy everything that he loves and that he would stop at nothing. Killing his wife was apparently not enough since Mat had miraculously taken his life back and begun to build a new future for himself and that had Venom raging with fury. He claimed he still owed him money and as long as he’s alive he will hunt him down till he gets them, even if it means taking down everyone he cares about, and that now includes his “pretty little bartender girl”, which she was referred to as, the last time Mat received his call. Roni didn’t know about this. He had, and is still, keeping it from her to prevent her from doing anything stupid. 

To him, she’s the daughter he never had. Annoyingly stubborn, stupidly spontaneous and unnecessarily flirty with everyone, yet he cares for her like no one else. He can never keep her at bay no matter how much he tries and that’s probably why he sometimes feels like a stressed out parent. He can never let any of this show though. It’s a weakness that Venom will undoubtedly take advantage of and Mat knows how it would end - how it always ends. But maybe he already knew?   
Roni soothingly squeezes his bicep once before brushing past him and out the entrance for her first cigarette in a while. Mat instantly calms down and is about to stop her to apologize, but swallows it right back when he remembers - he isn’t that soft, and however, she if anyone gets it. 


	4. Back in Time

Mat knocks on the shabby wooden door to Roni’s room before entering without an invitation. The brunette is sitting by her desk, fiddling with a golden necklace decorated with a small heart shaped charm. She seems to be rather occupied with her own thoughts because she doesn’t notice she had a visitor until he opens his mouth,

 

”Hey…”

 

Her gaze abruptly averts from the jewelry in her hands and she turns around to look at her boss with red stained and watery eyes.

 

“Oh,” she quickly wipes her arm across her face and sniffles when she realizes she’s not alone, “Hi.”

 

“You okay?” He asks, eyebrows slightly furrowed now when he realizes she has been crying.

 

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” She nods reassuringly and Mat understands that it’s best to just let it be and ask no more questions about it. He clears his throat,

 

“I just wanted to apologize for snapping the other day,” He admits and pauses, “I care about you.”  
Even though his words are kind, his voice is stern like always. 

 

“I know.” The younger woman smiles weakly. Mat is aware that it’s no news to her but he just wanted to make sure.

 

“Okay,” he nods, “... Good.”

 

Just as he’s about to walk back out the door, a voice from behind stops him and makes him turn back around,

 

“I’m sorry I keep disappointing you.” Her words actually surprises him and her next sentence is merely a whisper, “I just don’t know any better way to make that kind of money…”

 

“I’m not-“ He starts but cuts himself off because he would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed, “It’s not you, it’s this whole situation. There must be another way.”

 

“It’s okay, I’m not made of glass.” She innocently shrugs, but her reply only frustrates him even more,

 

“No, it’s absolutely not!” He raises his voice without meaning to, “I don’t want you near those perverted drunks again, do you hear me? I’m gonna fix the cash, I swear to you. I owe that to you after everything I’ve let you go through while you’ve been here. You're supposed to be bartending, nothing else.”

 

Roni doesn’t even get a chance to answer before he changes the subject,

 

“I think there’s someone you should call and apologize to for the other day by the way. We wouldn’t want you to get arrested, now, would we?” He suggests dryly before exiting the room.

That’s when it hits her that Emma actually found her last night and had no idea what was going on. She hadn’t talked to her since and it was probably a good idea to try to explain the situation to the blonde officer. She gets up from the chair and walks over to the couch where she has left her phone earlier, the screen is cracked and she can’t even remember why. She scrolls through her contacts, stopping at the one saying “La rubia” before clicking the call button.

 

—-

 

Emma is at the station when her phone starts ringing. She usually doesn’t get private calls at work since everyone tries to avoid calling at that particular time of the day. She looks at the screen and recognizes the number but cannot recall who it belongs to. With a shrug, she picks up anyway,

 

“Swan.”

 

“Emma!”

The warm voice reaching Emma's ear washes over her like a wave of relief. Roni is okay.

 

”Thank god..!” Emma groans into the cellphone and slouches down into her chair, ”Don’t ever do that again!”

 

”... Sorry.”

 

”I didn't know you-” The blonde turns her head to look around before she continues, realizing this is not the best place for this discussion, ”...used those kind of substances…” she half whispers into the phone.

 

”Yeah, no, uh… it’s complicated, but I can explain.” She sounds genuinely apologetic and even though all kinds of drug use not only were strictly illegal but also makes Emma personally furrow her brows, she actually wanted to hear her out before judging.

 

“Can we meet up after work?” Emma aks, sounding slightly more hopeful than before.

 

“Sure. I’m off at four sharp.” Roni says as the corner of her mouth curls.

 

“Great, do you have a car and will you pick me up at five?”

 

“Sí, no problem, count on me!” She hangs up before the blonde has the chance to say goodbye. Typical Roni. Not that it bothers her, she’s just not used to that kind of ending to a phone call but Roni had her own way with everything it would seem.

 

—-

 

The shift is coming to an end and Emma is collecting the last of her paperworks on her desk to put them in a drawer for tomorrow. It’s been rather busy at the station the whole day and both her eyes and ears are tired of the buzzing all around her. It’ll be nice to have some alone time with the brunette and just talk. She grabs her jacket and throws it over her shoulders before pulling it onto her arms and leaves the building through the entrance. Roni is parked right outside and she’s standing by the car, leaning onto the yellow lacquered metal while smoking a cigarette she has rolled herself.

 

“So, am I here to get arrested or do you actually want to talk?” She smirks as she puts an open hand up over her eyebrows to protect her eyes from the gassing sun. Emma comes up a little closer, unable to keep herself from letting a smirk grow upon her own face too.

 

“Depends on what you prefer.” She teases and Roni cocks a brow, positively surprised by the officers witty comeback.

 

“Is that so?” She muses before putting the cigarette back in her mouth and playfully letting her eyes wander from top to toe of the blonde in front of her, making her slightly blush and avert her gaze.

 

“Where do you want to go?” She asks instead, yet too insecure to play this game with Roni, she was too good at it. She’d need some more practice to get up to her level. Fortunately the bartender seemed to respect it and could turn her seductive mood off as quickly as it appeared.

 

“Back to the bar?” Roni suggests but Emma’s grimacing features tells her that she rather go somewhere less noisy. “... or on an adventure?” She smirks.

 

“Adventure?” Emma chuckles as Roni opens the door behind her and gestures by nodding her head towards the other seat as she mumbles with the cigarette still between her lips,

 

“Get in.”

 

Emma does as she says, walks around the bright bug and gets into the passenger seat next to the brunette. Roni butts the glowing stick out the half open window starts the old car.

After a while of driving, Emma can still not stop wondering where she’s taking them. She seems to know this city better than herself and that’s odd considering her own profession. She discreetly peeks over to the driver seat where Roni’s sitting, concentrated and with the used, burnt filter still in her mouth.

 

“How did you get a driver's license by the way, considering how you… you know, live?” Emma asks just to break the silence, quirking a brow, when realizing it seems kind of illogical for someone like her to have managed one at all. “I mean-! I don’t mean to judge you in any way I just-“

 

“I don’t have one.” Roni smirks and she barely finishes her sentence before Emma bursts with outrage,

 

” _Roni?!_ Oh my god! I’m sitting right here next to you, are you trying to get us both killed?!” She exclaims and Roni suddenly looks annoyed by her yammering,

 

”Calmate! Jeez…” The brunette whines, ”You’re fine.”

 

Emma wipes a cold hand up her forehead and leans back in her seat, suddenly gluing her eyes to the road and its surroundings nervously, to be on the safe side.

 

“Besides,” Roni adds, “I’m a skilled driver and you can’t deny that.”

 

”God, there are so many things I could arrest you for…” The blonde grumbles from the passenger seat.

 

”But do you?” A wide grin spreads upon the bartenders face while keeping her eyes on the road. Emma just shakes her head, clicking her tongue bitterly,

 

“You’re _lucky_ I haven’t yet.” She clarifies and throws her a warning look.

 

“I am.” Roni admits with a soft tone.

 

After a fifteen minutes drive, the unlicensed brunette pulls up on a smaller street where she parks the car along the sidewalk where it’s, not so surprisingly, forbidden to park. Emma just throws her hands in the air as Roni has gotten out of the car before she has a chance to comment on it. Nevertheless, she reluctantly follows her out of the vehicle and jogs to catch up with her as she’s heading towards a ramshackle building in a fast pace.

 

“Come on, officer! Put those muscles to use.” She winks as she briefly turns to look at the blonde who is close behind. Emma rolls her eyes and runs up alongside the other woman, pretending to not have to catch her breath.

 

“Where are we going?” She finally asks after wondering ever since leaving the police station.

 

“You’ll see.”

 

They enter the apartment building through a broken door, it’s not even locked and Emma is already starting to feel like this is the absolute last place she belongs. They walk up a stair. Most apartments along the hallway seems empty, and the stairs they walk up sound like they could fall apart at any moment. Roni leads them to the second floor and the fourth door before she abruptly stops right outside and turns to Emma,

 

“Don’t mention _anything_ to these people about being a cop.” She says with a tone so serious, Emma cannot help but getting a little nervous. What is this place? Who lives here? Why did she bring her here if whoever lived here had something against the police? Roni knocks, but opens the door without an invite.

 

“Amigos!” She yells and is greeted with joyful voices of what must be at least three other people in the crowded apartment. Emma carefully steps across the threshold, staying close to Roni all the time. Suddenly the brunette grabs her hand and pulls her into the room where they’re all gathered. There are two women and one man in there. One is sitting on the floor, one on a dirty mattress and another in a shabby, red sofa. There aren’t a lot of other furniture in there. No pictures on the walls, just an old concert poster from the streets. No real beds and no kitchen. The room smells funny and the first thing that comes to the officer’s mind is that this is a crackhouse.

 

“This is Emma.” Roni grins and puts her arm around her waist tightly as if to show her off.

 

“Emma who?” A woman in pink and offhandedly made makeup asks as she chews on her dry bubblegum. Before Roni can open her mouth, the guy on the mattress also speaks,

 

“Does she want some?” He croaks and holds a syringe up in the air before them. Roni flings forward, grabs it, slams it to the ground faster than he picked it up and throws him a glare.

 

“No, Joe. She doesn’t.” She growls.

 

“Oh but I know you do..!” He teases and gestures with his finger for her to come over but she just sighs loudly.

 

“No. You know I’ve stopped.”

 

Emma throws an eye at her and Roni can feel it but doesn’t want to make a comment on it. They were going to talk about that one time, just not right now.

 

“So, Emma, this is Minnie, Joe and Martha.” She says, but Emma is too occupied thinking about the brunette’s tight grip around her waist rather than the people before her eyes, “My old roommates.”

 

“Oh..! Hi.” Emma blinks, still confused about this random visit.

 

“So who are you?” Minnie asks once again and Roni’s gaze switches to meet hers.

 

“She’s my girlfriend.” She says and Emma is about to choke but quickly swallows it down.

 

“I- I mean-“ Emma stutters as she looks at Roni who turns to look at her too, way closer than she’s ever been to her face before. “... Yeah.” She exhales, suddenly feeling more comfortable with Roni than ever before.

 

“Wow, way to go, R!” Joe winks and claps his hands. He’s noisy and doesn’t talk very clearly, it’s obvious to the blonde that he’s on something. Most likely the heroin he just held up in front of them.

 

“I thought you had Mat?” Minnie says, still not very fond of the blonde’s presence.

 

“For the fiftyeight time, he’s _not_ my boyfriend!” Roni exclaims and the woman in pink just shrugs, “He’s my boss.”

 

“I thought you liked men bossing you around…” she mumbles and it’s like she throws fuel on a flame when Roni snaps back,

 

“ _Enough._ ” She’s well aware Minnie is only saying that to make Emma question things and get jealous, and right now that’s just unnecessary.

 

“Well then…” She lights a joint and leans back in the sofa.

Minnie is in her mid thirties, not a lot older than Roni, yet she’s guided her a lot during her teenage years. She had always supported her and helped her maintain her confidence and self esteem during all those years on the street. But she had also taught her in what business pretty street girls belong and no matter how much she hates it, she is still stuck in it, something Emma doesn’t know of yet.

Martha, in the meditation position on the floor hasn’t spoken yet. She’s elderly and isn’t intoxicated in any way, at least not at the moment and seemed to have no interest in drama whatsoever.

 

”Mamí, this is Emma…” She says a little gentler and kneels down in front of the older lady on the floor. She finally opens her eyes and looks at Roni, then at Emma. She studies her for a while and then gives her a warm smile as she gently holds Roni’s hands in hers.

“I like her…” She says quietly, her voice weak by age and a past full of heavy drug use, “She has a good heart.”

Martha claims herself to be some kind of psychic, which Roni actually believes is true. She’s got an eye for people and their aura, always had and could tell from the energy of a person what kind of human they are. Roni smiles for herself before getting back up to Emma’s level.

“Okay guys, Emma can’t stay for long, I just wanted to quickly show her off before moving on.” Roni shrugs to the group and throws a thumb over her shoulder.

”Leaving already?” Minnie asks and gets up from where she’s sitting, approaching them slowly, ”Maybe you guys can stop pretending and tell us who she really is first?” Roni’s eyes grows just a little and she steps up in front of Emma as if to protect her.

 

”I wasn’t lying.” Roni argues nervously but Minnie just scoffs,

”Just tell us as it is baby, she’s your customer, you just don’t want Evita to know.” Roni launches forward but Emma grabs her arm, because if there’s something she’s learned about Roni, it’s that her temper is hot. In more than one way. ”She’s not here right now anyways, so put your cards on the table, R.”

”She’s _not-_ ” she stops herself from saying too much out of fury and choose to grab Minnie’s arm, pull her into the bathroom and close the door behind them to have this discussion in private. Emma is left outside, nervously throwing an eye at her new company, who luckily for her seem to mind their own business.

“ _Listen,_ ” Roni pants, so frustrated it makes her breathless, ”she doesn’t know.”

”What?” Minnie cocks a brow, still chewing on her annoying gum.

”What I do. She’s not involved in that kind of… business, in any way.” She gestures with her hand frustratedly as she explains and the blonde in front of her actually seems to begin to get it.

”Oh, so she has no idea you go around and fuck people behind her back?” Minnie mocks. Roni winces and gives her an offended glare before burying her face in her hands.

”No! I’m not-... it’s complicated, okay?” She sighs, knowing she’s the one guilty of making it so, ”Just please, don’t tell her…” She pleads and the blonde actually nods acceptingly before they exit the tiny bathroom.

”Sorry about that…” Roni mumbles to Emma as she approaches her and Minnie walks back to her couch. ”We should go…”

”What’s going on?” Emma half whispers, demanding an answer.

”I’ll explain everything once we’re out of here.” Roni sighs quietly as she pulls Emma out the doorway.

—-

 

Just a couple of minutes later, they’re back in the car. Rain is now hitting the windshield and they’re both leaning back in their seats.

 

”So…” Emma starts, ” _Those_ were your roommates once?”

”Oh don’t say it like that! They’re nicer than you think.” Roni chuckles and looks at the blonde for the first time since they walked out of the apartment. ”But yeah, they were. Since I was fifteen until five years ago.” 

”Wow…” Emma mutter quietly. ”... Is Martha your mother?” She adds curiously. 

”No, but she’s been like one to me ever since the day I met her.” She smiles for herself, fiddling with a silver ring on her middle finger, ”I got thrown out of my home by my parents when I was fifteen.”

”Oh, I- I didn’t know…” Emma begins but Roni doesn’t seem to hear her.

”You see, why I wanted to show you this is because I wanted you to know where I’m from and drugs aren’t something extraordinary here. It’s as common as candy and everyone does it. It was a way to escape everything that was happening during my teenage years. Being fifteen and alone, on the streets and around addicts wasn’t the easiest thing. If you didn't do drugs, people didn’t trust you and you’d have nowhere to stay. You simply had to adjust.” Roni explains and Emma nods, paying attention to her carefully, ”I had actually stopped… I had been clean for a year and things were starting to get better, but then this _jackass-_ ” she stops when she feels her voice tremble and lifts her gaze to look out the window. She blinks and Emma can see how her eyes turn shinier in the light of the streetlamps. She gently puts a hand on top of hers, which makes the upset bartender snap out of her thoughts and turn to the blonde.

”Do you want to tell me what happened..?” She asks, not wanting to push her since it obviously seemed to be a sensitive topic, but her gaze averts back to her lap again.

”... Let’s just say he tricked me,” she smiles sadly, ”and it made me feel stupid and make a stupid decision.”

 ”I’m sorry.” Emma whispers, voice full of empathy, ”And yeah, it was stupid.” Roni looks up, on the verge of getting offended but she knows she’s right, she even said it herself.

”I didn’t even know how much I was injecting, I was way too upset and didn’t think of the consequences at all…” she continues, frowning, realizing how it must've looked from Emma’s perspective, ”Sorry.”

 ”I got that.” Emma mutters, ”Just promise you won’t do it again.” She begs, although still with a serious tone.

”I’m no good with promises.” Roni half smiles and Emma just tilts her head with a sigh of disappointment. This woman.

”Shall we get going?” The brunette suddenly asks,

”You know what?” Emma turns to her, ”I could need a drink after all of this, _girlfriend_ … So, Mat’s?”

 

Roni lets out a throaty, melodic laugh and starts the clattering vehicle.


	5. Her Whiskey Voice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got a little longer than expected but I guess no one's complaining... :)

Roni pushes the door wide open and they laugh as they stumble in through the entrance. Mat immediately throws them a glare that Roni couldn’t care less about and walks straight up to the bar where he’s standing, waiting for customers to approach.

“Hey hey hey, Mr. Grouch!” She taunts with a grin as she leans on to the marble and receives a sigh in return from the provoked bar owner. “How’s it going?”

“You’re pals now?” He growls, unamused and low enough for the blonde to not hear, while he rather aggressively shoves ice into a bunch of tall drink glasses standing on the bar top.

“Why? You jealous?” She muses annoyingly as she steals one of the glasses he has prepared, to make herself a drink. Mat then makes a sudden turn and snatches the glass out of her hand just as she’s about to pour apple vodka into it.

“That’s not for you and neither is that married, straight cop.” He snaps and stares at her until she breaks the eye contact out of slight discomfort. “Use your brain for goddamn once, Roni!”

She shakes it off by simply raising her brows, trying to look like she’s completely unaffected and grabs a glass of her own behind the counter before continuing where she was before he interrupted. Emma notices how Roni’s vivid smile and laughter has rather abruptly faded and walks over to check on her.

”Hey,” she tries to get the brunette’s attention, ”You okay there?”

”Yeah,” She answers shortly and puts on a fake smile, ”what do you want? We’ve got everything.”

”Staff _only_ behind the bar.” Mat snarls before leaving for the dishes in the kitchen. Roni rolls her eyes and grabs Emma by the jacket to lead them to one of the tables instead. It’s just unnecessary to irritate Mat any further. Emma drops down on a chair and the bartender leans onto the table in front of them before opening her mouth,

”So?” She confronts, ”What will it be, huh? A glass of milk?”

“You got anything stronger?” Emma quirks a brow, “And oh for the record, I’m gonna just assume the drinks are on you, my girl.” Emma muses and peeks her tongue out between her teeth in a childish manner.

“Oh shut up, _Mrs._ ” She mocks, but there’s a sad tone in her voice that she just can’t avoid as she says it. Because it’s a fact that she is married, not a joke, not funny. Emma’s laughter fades and her green eyes fall towards the table. She had almost forgotten about Killian for a moment. She throws an eye at Roni on the opposite side of the table but she is not looking at her, so she clears her throat and pretends to be uncomfortable and squirms in her seat. Roni looks up at her judgingly and husks,

”What’s wrong? Ants in yo pants?”

”It’s _so_ noisy out here, it’s giving me a headache…” She whines and rubs her temples wearing a troubled expression on her face.

”Just say you want to go to my room, Blondie.” She rolls her eyes with a pleased smirk.

”Oh, what a splendid suggestion! Could never have thought of it myself!” She exclaims, throwing her hands in the air. The brunette just lets out a throaty, genuine chuckle before grabbing Emma’s shirt by the front and pulling her up and away from her chair, heading towards the private hallway. Mat has begun to close the bar for the day and is too busy cleaning as the two women pass by.

”He made me lunch yesterday…” she begins out of nowhere, ”It was burnt and unacceptably unsalted.” She chuckles and surprisingly it puts a smile on Roni’s face too.

“What do you even have him for?” She asks, unimpressed and with some discreet jealousy infecting her tone.

“You say that like he’s a pet!” Emma laughs and shakes her head, “I… I love him.”

“ _Love_ …” Roni scoffs, “and what makes you _love_ him so much?” She narrows her eyes like she doesn’t believe in the mentioned verb.

“You know… His generosity and kindness, his dark hair and beautiful smile. He’s a police officer too, I guess we have a lot in common and get along very well.” She shrugs, watching her own fingers pick on her nails on top of the table.

Roni winces and struggles to not laugh.

“What??” Emma complains, “what kind of relationships have you had?” Emma laughs and Roni offers her a quirked brow,

“Give me an example then, love guru Swan. What’s the _perfect_ relationship like?” Roni mocks, pretending to be yearning for an answer.

“Have anyone ever helped you off with your shirt for example?” She asks casually. The brunette shakes her head and through a scoff, she adds,

“Why would they?” Roni asks rather weirded out by the thought.

“Because it increases the amount of intimacy, by doing just a simple thing like that,” Emma explains simply.

“By acting like I’m disabled and can’t undress?” Her right brow shoots high. Emma sighs frustratedly and hops a bit closer to the bartender, who still has no idea what’s going on or what she’s talking about. 

“Do you seriously not get it? Do I _have_ to demonstrate?” She asks, faking to be bothered.

“You wouldn’t,” Roni says, eyes just a tad darker than before. 

“What?” Emma protests cockily, “Will you throw whiskey in my eyes?”

Roni’s eyes narrow, daring her to go ahead.

Emma leans forward, carefully reaches around the brunette and gets so incredibly close that she’s able to notices every little detail on her face. The velvet couch is soft against her fingers as she uses her hands to move closer before grabbing the hem of Roni’s shirt that’s wrapped tight against her warm back and starts pulling it upwards. She can feel how the bartender slightly squirms in her arms as she does so and she can’t put the finger on if it’s discomfort or the complete opposite. Green orbs won’t stop falling towards the lips before them and she couldn’t care less if the brunette notices. Although, when they snap back up, she realizes that hers are doing just the same. She quickly pulls the shirt over and off her head, letting it fall to the floor and watches closely as the other woman runs a hand through her messy, thick curls. Emma lets her mouth fall open while she stares at Roni’s,

“... You have a scar.” She murmurs. The brunette seems to snap out of some kind of trance and leans back a tad, leaving some space between the two to ease the tension that had unexpectedly occurred. 

“It’s a ridiculous story…” She shrugs and doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.

“Would you mind telling me anyway?” The blonde asks carefully, not wanting to push her.

“Maybe one day.” She smiles and quickly changes the subject while she has the chance, “So… where were we?”

“I was showing you an example.” Emma states and narrows her eyes with a smirk, “Do you get it now?”

“Hm…” Roni tilts her head, obviously pretending to have a hard time understanding, “Not quite sure I am…” She smirks back and Emma can’t help but blush and shake her head. The woman knows what she’s doing and she’s currently _shirtless_ and in a black lace bra, making her _that_ much more intimidating.

“Okay then…” Emma straightens her back, “Have you ever let anyone touch you?” She asks without any particular intention in mind but a wide grin of excitement spreads across the brunette’s face.

“Oh, _officer!_ That’s a brave shot..!” She exclaims teasingly and Emma blushes hard.

“I-... I meant… gentle touches, like,” she stutters, “soft kisses, someone who plays with your hair or just likes the way your skin feels against their fingertips?” She explains carefully, Roni‘s eyes are still glued to hers, “Someone who enjoys the sound of you breathing next to them in bed at night or who craves to make you laugh. Someone who cares more about your happiness than their own.”

“Who are you talking about?” Roni asks and for some reason the grin has turned into gentle smile creeping in the corner of her mouth.

“What?” The blonde blinks.

“You’re not talking about touches or asking me questions anymore.” Her eyes are glimmering and Emma begins to stutter again,

“Oh…” and she can’t avoid smiling, too. It’s quiet just for a little while before the brunette answers the question she had been asked at the beginning of the blonde’s ramble,

“No.” She states, poisoning the atmosphere and Emma’s smile immediately fades, “I haven’t.”

The blonde simply nods slowly before letting her eyes fall on Roni’s nearly bare body just because she can’t resist the temptation, but then she notices something she hadn’t noticed earlier. She suddenly gasps and runs her hand over Roni’s quite badly bruised forearm and soon finds she’s got a bruised jaw under her makeup as well, which makes the brunette’s eyes follow the pale fingers to figure out what she’s studying with those worried, green eyes.  
 

“Did Mat do this?” Emma almost whispers the question that immediately catches Roni’s attention.

Emma really doesn’t want to be the snoopy kind of person that minds other people’s businesses way too often but there were so many things about this woman and these people that were so intriguing and mysterious that she can’t just stop being curious. She wanted to get to know this bartender better and to do that she would have to get to know those around her too.

“Who do you think he is?” Roni scoffs but smiles at her rather cute ignorance. She just cares after all. The blonde just shrugs innocently, still wearing a worried look on her face,

“I don’t know… He seems kind of rough.” She admits, slightly embarrassed now. She obviously knows nothing about Mat.

“He can come across quite scary and rough, yes. I mean he does have the guns, so every move he makes becomes kind of violent…” she chuckles, ”But no, he didn’t do this. He would never do something like this to me.”

A faint smile appears on the blonde's lips, but fades just as quickly as her mind comes up with a new question,

”Who did it then..?”

Roni takes a deep breath while she considers whether to tell her everything or not. It takes just a few seconds before she opens her mouth to answer,

”Come on. Let’s talk over another drink,” she throws her shirt back on, grabs Emma’s hand and pulls her up from the couch before heading out the door leading to the empty bar. Emma sits down at a table and waits for the bartender to answer her question. ”Okay, so… The _jackass_ from two days ago was one of Venom’s companions and I didn’t know that when he contacted me... He made me think we were going to meet up alone but it turned out he tricked me and a whole bunch of them appeared in my room. They beat me up and threatened me.” Roni says like it’s nothing.

”What?! Why? Are you in danger?”

”Nah, it’s just empty words, nothing to worry about.” She states as she gets up from her chair and walks over to the bar. ”You want something, chica?”

Emma just shakes her head, brows furrowed and still deep in thought as the brunette pours herself a whiskey.

”Why did they threaten you?” She asks when the bartender is back and seated at the table.

”You’re a curious one.” Roni smiles as she puts the glass down on the table, her voice husky from the burning whiskey trickling down her throat. Emma blushes. ”They wanted me to trick Mat out to some distant place where they could wipe him out. Of course, I refused and they were so many I had no chance to get out of there before they punished me for it, as they had threatened to do if I disobeyed.” She shrugs.

”Did you tell Mat?” Emma asks under her breath.

”He doesn’t need to know everything.” She winks and gets up from her chair once again only to walk around it and have a seat on top of the actual table in front of Emma, whiskey still in hand, ”You wanted to know about my scar, no?” She changes the subject before Emma has the chance to respond to her previous comment.

”Y-yeah… If you feel comfortable telling me.” She stutters, slightly confused about the random topic from nowhere. Roni places her hands with the glass on her lap and a smirk appears in the corner of her mouth,

”I stole Mat’s car once and drove it with that nonexisting license… Let’s just say it didn't end very well.” Roni tilts her head dreamingly and chuckles before taking another sip of the alcohol. ”Or now when I think about it, considering I’m here having a glass of gold with a pretty blonde, I guess it did turn out quite well after all…” she muses with her raspy whiskey voice and Emma, who isn’t prepared for the comment, lightly chokes on her own saliva. The bartender empties her glass tilting the bottom up and returns to behind the counter to refill it.

”... Was it bad?” Emma manages to croak from where she’s sitting.

”I took a tree. The windshield shattered and I got cuts all over my face, leaving a more distinct scar across my lip and forehead and a sprained ankle, no worse than that.” She shrugs and fills another glass for the blonde officer, who still hasn’t agreed to one. ”According to Mat, the worst part was that I wrecked his brand new, super expensive Audi.” she chuckles evilly. Emma can’t help but giggle too.

“I’m glad you’re fine,” Emma says softly and follows Roni back to her room, eyes wandering down the back if the silent brunette in front of her. Even though she doesn’t turn to look at her, Emma knows that she’s noticing. Emma pops down into the sofa and Roni takes a seat atop the armrest. It’s quiet for just a moment before the silence abruptly ends as one of them decides to speak,

  
  
”Do you know who Venom is?” Roni asks, suddenly very serious and almost seems uncomfortable about the topic but decides to bring it up nonetheless. Emma looks at her and slightly furrows her brows,

”I’ve seen a few cases regarding him at the station… But no more than that,” She admits. “Why?”

”Mat refuses to say his name and he loathes to hear it, so we don’t use it when he’s around. He’s a well-known mafia boss, both powerful and ruthless, so we need to have a lot of respect for him even though he’s our worst enemy. All of us would rather spit on him than kiss his shoes but we don’t because we want our heads to remain attached to our bodies.” She begins, handing over the drink she made for Emma before she continues ”There’s a war between him and Mat going on and Venom’s goal is to break him even if it is the last thing he does.”

”Why would he want that..?” Emma asks, confused but quite intrigued by the story.

”Venom claims that Mat owes him money. They had some business deal going on years ago and there were lots of misunderstandings which led to Venom accusing him of stealing his money, something Mat refuses to plead guilty to.” She continues and Emma nods as she listens, ”He’s always after him. Constantly looking for things that could hurt him, make him weaker or even break him completely. He killed his wife and six-year-old son about five years ago and Venom was convinced it would kill him but that's exactly why he survived. Mat is never gonna let him win, whatever cruelties Venom has planned for him.”

  
Emma doesn’t even know how to respond to all of that.

”Wow…” Emma breathes, ”But what do you have to do with all of this?”

”Mat cares about me. I’m the closest to family he’s got,” She explains, ”And what is more painful than seeing your family get hurt because of you?”

”They hurt you to hurt Mat…” Emma nods understandingly.

”Yeah. They don’t care about me, I’m just a tool in their eyes.” Roni shrugs.

”Still sounds to me like you’re in danger though, considering what they seem to be capable of,” Emma states, pursing her lips.

”Don’t worry.” She reassures and offers her a smile but something tells Emma she’s just trying to protect her from getting involved as well.

Just as silence has begun to creep into the room again, the door gets slammed up and one of the other bar workers, Andrew, steps through the door. His eyes move from Roni to Emma before a smirk creeps up on his face. The brunette immediately gets up from where she’s sitting, replacing herself with the glass in her hand.

 

“ _Guys! Ronita’s got a friend in here, come look!_ ” He yells out into the hallway. Roni steps up in front of Emma and glares at her colleague who crosses his arms over his chest cockily as the other two walks up alongside him.

“Leave her _alone_.” The brunette growls and takes a step closer to her loathed co-workers. Andrew just laughs and takes a step closer as well, looking down on her like she’s a powerless child. Emma is about to join them but Roni pushes her back and snaps, ”Stay behind me.”

”Ooo, big strong Roni is gonna protect you, we better watch out!” Andrew taunts and forcefully pulls her in and takes a firm hold of her ass while the rest of his arm is keeping her in place tight against his body to make sure she can’t move away. ”I bet she’s gonna do bad things to us…” He breathes in her ear while she grunts and struggles to get out of his grip. The other men laugh and get closer as if she’s a prey and they’re a pack of hungry predators. At that moment, Emma has had enough. She launches forward, grabs Andrew’s free arm and twists it backward in a way that makes him yelp and loosens the grip of Roni. For the first time, putting her skills she has developed in police school to use, she floors the man in front of her. Andrew’s cheek is pressed to the floor as Emma leans in over him and clearly warns,

“I’m a police officer, and if you don’t keep your hands away from her, I _will_ have you arrested for sexual assault.” Just as she’s about to let go, she feels a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turns around, facing Roni who’s silently advising her to just let it go. She’s boiling. She wants nothing more than beat this guy bloody right now and shove him straight into jail, but she knows she can’t handle this situation differently just because it’s personal. With shaky hands, she lets him go and he quickly gets onto his feet before hurrying out of the room with his two mascots following right behind. When the door is finally shut again, Emma turns to Roni with a deep frown on her face, hands on hips. ”What the hell was that?!” Roni just shakes her head and shrugs,

”Sorry you had to witness that.”

”Aren’t those your colleagues??” She asks, clearly disturbed by the fact. The brunette nods and lets out a scoff,

”Yeah,” Their eyes meet, ”and they're taking advantage of that to the fullest.” Emma can’t stop staring at her even when chocolate eyes avert. The way Roni always seemed to laugh her pain and problems away made her whole heart hurt. This was far from ”nothing” as she wanted Emma to think.

”Why don’t you report them?” Emma’s voice is a little softer now and the bartender’s gaze comes back to connect with hers. She takes a deep breath and furrows her brows in concern before answering the question,

”It’s a little more complicated than that…” she almost half-whispers. Now it’s Emma’s turn to let out a sarcastic laugh,

”Roni…” she begins and lightly grabs her arm and slowly leads her to the couch right behind them. Roni sits down as her calves touch the fabric. ”It’s really not. You report him, we deal with the rest and you won’t have to worry.” She reassures.

”That’s not the problem though…” Roni sighs, really not wanting to explain any further and risk getting Emma more involved than she already is. Emma takes a seat next to her,

”Then what is it?” She asks, voice gentle with concern. Roni squirms in her seat and clears her throat, knowing Emma isn’t the one to give up and she will eventually have to tell her anyway,

”Mat…” she hesitates, but decided to go on, ”... saved them from being thrown into the greybar hotel after they’d been caught using meth outside a nightclub once. They’re family to him. We all are. Do you understand how it would look if _I_ would be the reason they got thrown in jail nonetheless, after all of these years of escaping and hiding? I would never let Mat down like that. After all, he tries to make sure it never gets out of hand. He cares for me. For us.” She nods convincingly, but Emma rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath.

”He’s not trying hard enough,” She states and gets onto her feet in frustration, ”Mat is no God, why do you treat him like one? Stop defending him!” she exclaims, begging the brunette to come to her right senses, but instead, she receives an offended glare.

”You don't know him! You know _nothing_ about neither of us!” She snaps and gets up from the couch too to face the blonde officer up close, ”I _just_ told you about Venom and what happened to Mat. To _me_. Don’t you have a brain or is it your heart that’s missing??” She yells and Emma takes a step back. Roni’s eyes are furiously switching between hers and only when they begin to tear up she averts her intense gaze and wipes a hand over her reddened nose.

”Roni… I didn’t mean-”

” _Oh_ shut it.” She scoffs furiously, ”You’re a _cop._ We’re the complete opposites of each other. Why did I even expect you to understand…” She blinks away the tears that are trying to form and shakes her head whilst chuckling sadly to herself. Emma sighs and tilts her head to the side, regretting letting those words leave her mouth earlier.

”Hey, I’m just saying you don’t deserve to be treated like this.” She tries and at least it catches the brunette’s attention,

”Like _this?_ No, I agree.” She steps up centimeters from the green eyes in front of her, ”Leave.”  
 

Emma’s slightly open mouth won’t close as she looks at the incredibly hurt woman in front of her and with a loss for words, she slowly begins to move towards the back door behind her. Knowing that whatever she says is going to make things worse, she simply pushes the handle down and, as she was told to, leaves.


	6. Eleven Sharp

The snoring next to her is getting on her nerves so badly that she’s on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Not to mention she’s been robbed of her blanket about three times through the night. It had been a long time since they went to bed to cuddle up together or even shared a blanket but to be honest it didn’t really bother neither of them. Any fun amongst the sheets was out of the question. To be fair, they both had been working their asses off all week and whilst Killian had to work overtime in the afternoon, Emma took the opportunity to visit Mat’s, or more specifically, Roni. Every day this week she had been there but she most likely wouldn’t be today. The hurt in her eyes had looked so familiar and Emma had felt like she suddenly was just like everyone else; judging her, simplifying her life, telling her what to do and that she’s wrong… Roni was right. They were the complete opposite of each other so how could Emma ever understand?

 

“Good morning, love…” The scruffy brunette beside her yawns. She takes her eyes off the ceiling she’s been staring at for the last thirty minutes of thinking and looks at her husband before cracking a smile.

“Morning..!” She murmurs before her smile fades and she grabs her phone on the nightstand to check for notifications. None. She sighs audibly and sits up, covering herself up by holding the blanket against her chest.

“What’s bothering you?” He asks with a worried tone, watching her concerned features from where he’s lying.

“Oh, uh…” she blinks, not aware of that she wore a frown until Killian pointed it out, “Nothing. I just need to send a document to the station before noon so I better get up.”

Her husband just nods sleepily and Emma crawls out of the blanket to sit on the edge of the king-sized bed. She pulls on a pair of navy jeans while trying to figure out how to contact the upset bartender. Calling Mat is a bad idea, heading over there as well, but what other options does she have? She has to come up with something. She grabs her white tank top and walks down the stairs to get something to eat from the kitchen that might get her brain to start working. A boiled egg and an avocado sandwich can never go wrong. While scrolling through her phone, chewing on her breakfast, she can’t help but wonder why Roni got so upset last night. She hadn’t meant to offend her, quite the opposite in fact. She wanted her to know that she is free to do whatever she wants without anyone else's approval, especially when it comes to her own body. She seemed to be a complex person overall though and she probably has some more surprises up her sleeve. She opens her messages and creates a new one while still thinking intensively. Finally, she’s got an idea...

 

_“Hi, this is Officer Swan. I need to get in contact with your employee Roni as soon as possible concerning a report of suspicious drug possession. Please leave her my number and make sure she contacts me immediately or I will have no other choice than to bring her in tomorrow afternoon._

_Thank you.”_

 

Good move Swan.

She puts the phone down on the table and proudly leans back on the sofa to wait with a grin on her face, yearning for a response.  
  


* * *

 

At Mat’s, the customers have just started to roll in. Mat himself is serving the drinks while Roni is making them in the back of the bar. Just when the last person in line has gotten his beer, the phone to the bar buzzes and before Mat has the chance to take another step towards the kitchen, he stops because the one buzz is strangely unusual. They got lots of calls, but the last time they got a text message was from someone who had gotten the wrong number. Mat frowns at the unfamiliar sound and walks over to pick the device up and read what it says on the bright screen.

 

“Didn’t I _tell_ you to talk to your cop friend about your inappropriate behavior those days ago?!” Mat hisses as he turns to the bartender behind him,

“Wha-... Yes, and I did. Why are you yelling?” She scoffs and finishes the drink she’s making before grabbing the phone he’s holding out for her. ”... what?!”

”You better give that number a call, woman.” He grumbles and takes the device back, “Go get your phone.”

Roni walks back to her room at a rapid speed, cursing silently for herself on the way through the hallway. She grabs the phone from her desk and starts typing, thumbs flying across the screen.

 

_“So, you’ve finally grown the guts to arrest me?”_

 

Emma’s phone pings loudly from the table in front of her and she snaps out of her TV watching when it reaches her ears. Eagerly, she fumbles to unlock the phone and once she’s gotten the text up on her screen, she cocks a brow.

 

**_“I’m not gonna arrest you, silly. I just wanted your number and now I’ve got it. ;)”_ **

 

Roni rolls her eyes and groans aloud when realization hits her. Of course she did.

 

 _“What do you want”_ She doesn’t even bother to put a question mark at the end of her text, already tired of wasting her time on this woman. 

**_“I’m sorry.”_ **

_“I don’t care.”_

**_“What does it take for you to forgive me?”_ **

_“Leave me alone, Blondie.”_

**_“Don’t ‘Blondie’ me, we’ve been through too much.”_ **

_“Are you gonna put me in jail or not?”_

**_“Why are you still answering my messages?”_ **

Why is she? She slams the phone down the table, screen facing the wooden surface and swears for herself as she leaves her room and device and walks back out to the bar.  


**_”We need to talk. Can I call you?”_ **

**_”Roni??”_ **

**_*One missed call from La Rubia*_ **

**_”K, if ur stubborn ass doesn’t answer I’ll come over.”_ **

**_”...”_ **

 

Just when Mat spots Roni coming out from the hallway, he yells for her to come over. She spins around immediately and approaches him.

 

”I need you to collect all the trash and dishes. Andrew and Liam are cleaning and I have to write the order lists.”

”What’s Will doing? Can’t he do it?”

”Is there a problem or are you just lazy?” He growls seriously and Roni sighs audibly. ”What did she say by the way?”

”Oh, we solved it!” She waves it away, ”It wasn’t about me.”

”Good.” He answers sternly and goes back to work. Roni grabs a tray and walks out into the crowd to collect empty glasses and bottles and suddenly a rather young man slides a hundred bucks across the table, catching the bartender’s attention.

“Boy, you barely get a drink for that.” Roni mocks and stops to raise a brow at the handsome brunette, balancing a tray full of half-empty glasses in one hand. When the man chuckles she sits down at the table in front of him, grabs his glass of whiskey and takes a sip out of it while watching him dig his hand into his pocket once more. He pulls out another two hundred and she nearly snatches them out of his hand.

“That’s more like it…” She stuffs them down her bra and grabs his empty beer bottle to add to her tray before she leaves, “Eleven sharp, tonight." 

”What was that?” Mat asks as she arrives back behind the bar counter. 

”A tip.” Roni shrugs and continues to the kitchen. Mat clenches his teeth together, hard, yet he doesn’t go after her. She’s not his kid after all.  


* * *

 

It’s getting late. Half past ten to be exact. Emma is reconsidering whether to actually drive over to Mat’s or not. They should be closed by now and Roni is most likely spending her time alone in her room. She hasn’t answered any of her latest text, nor calls and is making it rather obvious that she doesn’t want anything to do with her right now. But what other option than visiting did she have if the upset brunette wasn’t going to answer her phone? If she wasn’t welcome she could just drive back home.

 

”Honey?” She calls out, hoping it will reach the living room where Killian has switched on the TV and eats from a big bowl of popcorn. Emma had been sitting in the dark kitchen for the last ten minutes, staring at her phone while making up her mind.

”Aye?” He calls back. Emma is already tired of yelling so she gets up and walks over to lean on the door frame next to the television.

”I was thinking about driving downtown and get a drink with Mary in ten.” She lies, ”Is that okay with you?” she asks carefully not to make him too disappointed that she didn’t want to watch the horror movie he chose for them.

”Now?” He looks down at his wristwatch, ”Okay. Yeah, sure.” He doesn’t seem too bothered. She offers him a smile before walking out to the hall. She puts on her brown leather jacket since it's cold outside at this time of the day and it has a cozy, fluffy lining. Her knee-high boots are already perfect for this weather. She grabs the keys and phone and heads out to her brown truck to drive to, not Mary Margaret, but Mat’s. When she arrives, it’s all quiet in the street. The lights are out in almost every window, only the bright, green sign lights up the entrance to the pub. The entrance is locked, obviously, so she walks around the building to knock on Roni’s backdoor. No one opens though when she does so and she decides to enter anyway, as usual.

Roni is currently getting dressed and is too busy to hear the faint knock against the plate outside. She turns around to the sound of a couple of footsteps behind her and eyes grow wide and her lips part when she spots Emma in the doorway. She’s well aware of that Emma isn't used to seeing her like this and she already knows she will want an explanation.

 

“What are you doing here?” She asks shortly,

“I-...” Emma stutters and has a hard time both closing her mouth and keep the eye contact with the brunette, who is clad in a red corset, a pair of lace thongs and an officer’s cap in leather, still working on getting the rest of the outfit on. She’s wearing heavy makeup, compared to what she usually wears. A smokey eye matched with lipstick red as blood, even her nails are painted.

“You’re not supposed to be here… I’m busy.” Roni mutters, clearly annoyed as she struggles to get her legs into the last garment without destroying her still drying, black nails.

“Yeah… obviously.” She mumbles as she watches her pull the rest of her black fishnet stockings in place, “What’s all of this?” She finally asks, gesturing with her hand towards the brunette who is now smoothly sliding her feet into dangerously high, lacquered stilettos.

Roni spins around, snatches her floral leather jacket off the hook by the door and throws Emma a glare,

 

“Well, it’s certainly not your business.” She snarls and puts a cigarette between her lips before she approaches the backdoor, jacket on and hips swaying in those daring, sheer fishnets.

”Hey, you’re not gonna like... put a pair of shorts-” Roni is already out the door before she finishes her sentence, ”... on?” The blonde rolls her eyes before following her out to the backside of the building. “I think we need to talk…” she states carefully, but the smoking bartender just shakes her head,

“Was I not clear enough?” She mumbles with that deep voice of hers, ”I’m _busy_.”

“You don’t look so busy,” Emma starts but lets her eyes judgingly wander down the woman in front of her, “... except for all of _that_.”

She takes the cigarette out of her mouth and inhales aggressively before turning to Emma,

 

” _Really?_ Are you sure? Because you can stay if you want but I’ve got things that are _very_ different from talking on my to-do list.” She growls staring the blonde down, ”Suit yourself.”

”Okay…” Emma shrugs lightly, ”I’ll stay.” She clarifies insecurely, having a strange gut feeling telling her it was a bad choice. Roni puts the glowing stick back into her mouth and pulls a big whiff from it, not really reacting to Emma’s decision.

They walk back in. Roni adds some more lipstick to cover up what has been smudged while smoking and Emma takes a discreet look around, hoping to find some clues to what she is up to. Her room looks just like normal though, nothing points to that something would be happening very soon. The brunette takes her jacket off and puts it back on the hanger by the door and just like that, Emma’s eyes are immediately glued elsewhere. Those nets are way too see-through, she determines. The corset makes her chest look delicious and the red color suits her _so_ good.

 

”So what are you up to?” Emma asks casually as she slouches down into the chair by the desk, accidentally knocking down some of Roni’s jewelry with her elbow in the process. Roni turns her head and cocks a brow,

“Wait,” she says, rather untroubled.

Speaking of the devil, one minute later, it knocks on the door. Roni winks at Emma before she goes to answer it and Emma curiously watches as the door opens. There’s a man standing there. He’s got dark, short hair and nicely trimmed beard. He looks to be slightly younger than the both of them if not the same age and he’s fit, very fit. He’s smirking. Roni grabs his hand and pulls him into the room before pushing him into the sofa with her slender fingers.

 

“Nicolas. Right?” She’s wearing a wolfish grin, teeth white as pearls and ready to devour just anything that comes in their way. He bites his lip and nods, looking the bartender up and down just like Emma had done when she arrived. “Good.” She muses. Emma winces as she watches the interaction between the two. He was way too aroused in her opinion, staring Roni down like she was meat and for some weird reason, she seemed to like it. She suddenly crawls onto his lap, straddling him as close to his body as she possibly can before resting her elbows on top if his shoulders, arms stretched out straight behind him. Emma frowns, expecting her to knock him out or spit in his face any minute now, but it doesn’t happen. She’s biting down her plump lip, moving her hips to make herself more comfortable and with her airy voice, she makes sure it’s obvious when she is.

“So…” she begins, gripping a handful of hair on his head, “Where do I begin?” Her darkened eyes wander over the man below her and she’s licking her lips as if she’s looking at a bufét of possibilities. Emma is starting to get really uncomfortable. She has no idea what’s going on. Did she have a boyfriend? No, she didn’t know his name. But wasn’t she gay? Wasn’t her preferences the reason she got thrown out of her home when she was fifteen? She would’ve been sure of it if it wasn’t for _this._

“Wanna stay and watch, hm? Nick here might find it exciting to have an audience…” She purrs and runs a finger along his sharp jawline. Emma feels like she’s going to throw up any second now and she doesn’t know if it’s the dizziness of confusion or pure disgust. The man chuckles like he’s in some kind of trance and watches Roni as she guides his hands to her fishnet-clad ass. Emma takes a step back, closer to the exit. She’s not sure whether to confront her or just get out of there as quickly as possible. But was she really that much of a coward?

Roni starts grinding. She tilts her head back and the guy suddenly bites down her neck and pulls a satisfied moan from her vocal cords. Yes, Emma Swan is a coward. She rips the door open and storms out of there, through the hallway, past Mat by the bar and out through the exit. She stops right outside the door and slams her back against the brick wall next to it, shakily running her hands through her golden hair as she tries to catch her breath. What just happened? She is well aware of that Roni has a lot of sex appeal, is feisty and loves teasing more than anything but this just felt so out of place. Was this some sick kind of comeback? In that case, it worked. If this is what Roni felt yesterday, then she deserved this.


	7. Salsa

“Already back?” Killian mumbles from the living room, mouth full of popcorn.  
  
“Yeah… Mary didn’t feel very well and we decided to reschedule it for tomorrow.” Emma says as she gets undressed in the hallway. Killian is still watching the same horror movie he had put on before she left and her response seems to go unheard. She walks upstairs to the bedroom only to throw herself onto the bed and make sense of all her thoughts, but it’s impossible. She only comes up with more questions, alternative scenarios and makes herself even more confused. It doesn’t take long before she’s dead asleep, too exhausted to try any harder.  


She wakes up early the next day. The sun is barely up yet and the room is still chilly from the fall air that’s been seeping in through the window standing ajar above her bed. The sleep she’s gotten has been needed and even though she didn’t get her thoughts sorted out during the past hours, there was a slightly bigger chance she could sort them out now. She throws her blanket off of her chest and rubs her eyes before sitting up on the edge of the bed, still slightly sleepy. She picks up her phone from the nightstand and, speak of the devil, there's a message from Mary Margaret, asking if she wants to join her downtown for a cup of coffee and small talk. Nothing would be more fitting right now, to be honest.

 

* * *

 

 

On the other side of town, Roni is abruptly woken from her beauty sleep when the need to throw up washes over her and she has to lean over the edge of the sofa not to screw up the only thing she’s got to sleep on. This was usually what happened every morning after a night of too much alcohol or drugs that she should never have tried to begin with, but today she had been clean for a week and the shots she had yesterday was nothing she couldn’t handle. She really felt ill this morning. Her throat burns and her muscles aches. She hurls again into the trash can she luckily got a hold of, she’s definitely not well. Shit. Today was a day they always celebrated, mostly to have an excuse to decorate some extra but also because it meant a lot to Roni herself. The day of the dead. She had lost a lot of people that she held dear through the years on the street and she was a sucker for tradition. A mild illness wouldn’t stop her from getting the party started either way.

Exhausted and freezing, she sits up straight, still covering herself up with the blanket and grabs her bra that’s hanging over the armrest of the couch. She finds a checkered flannel on the floor and a pair of ripped jeans on the chair by the writing desk. Clumsily, she shuffles out of her room and knocks on Mat’s office door. He opens quicker than expected and she is met by a half-naked man in the doorway, wearing only his boxers.

 

”Why do you knock this early??” He mutters, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

”I’m not feeling very well…” Roni complains,

”And what do you want me to do about it?” He asks, only bothered and grumpy that she’s disturbing the peace.

”I don’t think I can work tod-” She covers her mouth and hurries over to her bathroom, carefully sits down in front of the toilet, waiting for the uncomfortable wave of nausea to wash over her again before she lets herself throw up once more.

”Roni, I swear to god…” Mat walks up to her doorway, talking with a stern voice, ”If you are pregnant-”

”I’m not pregnant. I’m sick!” She rolls her eyes between the heavy breaths as she has to catch her breath.

”How can you be so sure?? Considering the number of people you fuck every week, there are dozens of chances you could’ve gotten pregnant with some drunk ass pervert…” Mat grumbles frustratedly.

”I have a fever. My throat is sore. Everything aches...” Roni nags, ”I know what pregnancy feels like and this is not it.”

Mat sighs loudly and walks back to his room, but before closing the door he turns to Roni,

”I want you to go check and get it one hundred percent confirmed. This week.” He growls and slams the door shut behind him. Roni moans like a fed up teenage girl tired of her overprotective dad.

 

* * *

 

Emma is way too eager to talk to someone about all of this, so right when she has put her hot cup of cocoa down on the table and gotten comfortable in her chair, she opens her mouth to speak before Mary Margaret has even reached the table,

 

”I’ve kind of made a new friend…” trying to hold back the light blush threatening to bloom across her cheeks.

”Is that so?? Who is this… person?” Mary asks with an amused smirk on her face.

”Her name is Roni, she works at Mat’s downtown.”

”Oh!” the pixie-haired woman suddenly looks concerned, almost choking on her pastry.

”What?” Emma asks, surprised by her reaction.

”I just…” Mary shakes her head as if to excuse herself for the sudden and almost disrespectful reaction, ”I’ve heard they’re just laundering their money with that bar… There have been shootings, fights and shady things going on there since the start. The owner seems to be involved with lots of criminal activities. I don’t know about the rest of his staff though  if she seems nice there’s probably nothing to worry about.”

”She’s… Special, I guess.” The blonde hesitates, after all, they had been arguing quite a lot and Roni was always up to things Emma did not really understand. She takes a sip of her cocoa, considering what her friend had just told her.

”I don’t mean to talk badly about your friend, or her job for that matter, I just want you to be careful… Even though you’re a cop.” She explains but Emma puts a hand on top of hers,

”No worries, I understand,” She smiles softly, “and I am, I promise.”

Mary smiles back and takes a sip of her coffee that she for a moment forgot that she had.

She had a point. She should be careful because after all, she didn’t know Roni that well. She had no idea what kind of business she was involved in or what people she used to be around. From what she had seen, she seemed to hang out with the wrong people. She wasn’t like them, not really. She seemed much smarter, even though she was a little naive and a little too confident at times.

”What’s on your mind?” Mary suddenly asks and Emma is ripped from her thoughts, ”You’re frowning.”

”Oh, I didn’t realize…” she shakes it off, ”Nothing. I just… We ended it kind of.. drastically last time. You think I should call her?”

”Drastically?”

”Uhm, yeah it’s complicated…” Emma swallows thickly, ”Point is, I want to make sure we’re still good, you know?”

”She matters to you,” It comes out like a statement just as much as a question from the pixie-haired woman, ”You should go to her.”

Emma throws her an eye, a little unsure if that’s a very good idea.

”She’s…” she begins, quirking a brow as she tries to figure out how to word it, ”She’s not a big fan of surprises.”

”I doubt she would mind you showing up to apologize,” she smiles, but it fades just as fast as she realizes that she’s got no idea what happened between the two, let alone who should be apologizing, ” _If_ that’s what you’re gonna do, I mean!”

”Yeah, I don’t know…” Emma mumbles, drawing patterns with her nail atop the coffee table. ”We’re going to Mat's later anyway. They decided we should have the office party there for some reason.” She rolls her eyes but the other woman lights up,

”But that’s perfect?! Then you can talk to her tonight!” She exclaims but Emma just grimaces,

”It’s not the same thing… I’ll be there with Killian and the whole crew. I won’t have time to have a serious chat with her.” She whines resting her chin in her open hand.

“Do whatever feels right, but you really should talk to her if she’s important to you.” Mary smiles reassuringly and Emma nods slowly.

“I’ll just go there tonight and see what happens.” Emma decides and Mary’s smile grows wider.

 

* * *

 

Emma spends the rest of her afternoon at the station, away from both Mat’s and her husband to get some time for herself. These last days have been rather intense and a few hours of plain silence is certainly needed. She doesn’t really look forward to the office party… Mostly because she isn’t in a party mood but also because she is going to be there with all of her colleagues and, as if that wasn’t enough, her husband. She already knows he is going to get drunk because that’s the only thing he enjoys to do when he is out for the night, especially when his co-workers and friends are around. Roni will be working, so she will probably not have a lot of spare time she can spend on entertaining her either. She would just simply have to endure this one evening. It’s just a few hours, after all.

The car ride from her house to the pub isn’t very long. It takes only about ten minutes to get there and during that time, the married couple is rather quiet. Emma, because she knows how this all goes and Killian, because he still isn’t very fond of Mat’s and the people working there, but as long as he gets something to drink, it will be fine. When they arrive, Emma gets out of the car first. She’s not very eager to start the night but can’t stand the awkward silence anymore, hence the hurried escape. She enters the bar and the first thing she notices is that the place looks very different, very festive. She is immediately stared at by Mat from the bar, though. It must be her crimson jacket. Trying her best to ignore it, she walks past him and towards one of the empty tables, but she doesn’t come very far before she spots something equally as crimson as her own garment in the corner of her eye,

 

“Emma!” Roni exclaims and makes her way up to the blonde. Each step in those high heels makes her red flamenco dress move delicately and she’s got her hair pinned up with a big, red rose on a clip on the side of her head. Her eyeliner is sharper than the shattered glass in her hands and her bold lipstick makes it hard for Emma to keep her eyes elsewhere.

“Wow, what’s going on here?” She chuckles and looks around. The whole place is decorated with skulls and flowers, candles and vivid colors. Spanish guitar music is playing in the background and even Mat has dressed up actually, wearing a sombrero, although it’s currently hanging on his back. Roni throws the sharp pieces into a trash can behind the bar and grabs two new glasses before stepping up closer to the officer.

”Es el día de Los Muertos, mamita!” Roni cheers in perfect Spanish as she brings two sangrias over to her friend, grinning widely. Right when the blonde has grabbed onto it and gotten comfortable in one of the chairs, Roni drops a tiny, white pill next to her glass, ”It takes the edge off.” She winks before swallowing one herself adding a painkiller to ease some of the pain from the flu she seems to have caught. Emma slams her hand down on top of it to cover it from any eyes around them.

”You're forgetting I’m a cop..!” She snaps in a whisper, jumping out of her chair, ”You do your thing, just not around me, okay?” She slowly slides it back over to the bartender across the table, making sure no one saw. Roni rolls her eyes and flips it into her own mouth, swilling it down with the fruity wine in her glass.

”So, what brings you here?” She asks, her voice husky from the burning alcohol. Emma takes a sip and throws a thumb over her shoulder before shoving it down her jeans pocket,

”Office party.”

 

The brunette throws an eye towards the entrance behind Emma and when she realizes there are more people there, she happily walks over to welcome them too. Emma spins around when she passes by and watches with slight envy as she greets the other guests, her colleagues, with cheek kisses and that wide smile of hers.

When everyone is gathered and the party can get started, Roni comes up with a drink to Emma, who is already surrounded by empty sangria and beer glasses.

 

“Someone’s started without me!” She laughs, squinting her dark eyes while holding the glass decorated with a yellow parasol out to her as she approaches, ”Here, I made it myself.” She grins,

”What is it?” Emma slurs, looking at the drink then the brunette before gripping it around the foot.

”A love potion.” She winks and Emma blushes but lets it happen and smiles shyly. Roni’s grin just grows wider at the sight before her voice drops back into a serious tone, “It’s strawberry, try it.”

”Gosh, I work tomorrow and I’m already too tipsy for my own good…” Emma mumbles, ”You and Mat are very close by the way… How come?” She tilts her head as she completely changes the subject, taking a sip of her strawberry drink, “Are you like… sleeping with him?”

She would never ask this kind of inappropriate questions if she wasn’t a little intoxicated.

“Pft! No way!” Roni snorts, “As long as I don’t get a raise in salary he ain’t getting this booty, that’s for sure.” She chuckles and takes another mouthful of her drink. Emma frowns, not quite getting why money would have anything to do with her question but cracks an unsure smile nonetheless. ”No, he’s like an older brother to me. Almost like a father figure, but that sounds rather creepy so I don’t use that term…” Roni chuckles.

” _Roni!_ ” Mat yells from the bar and both women's heads turn, ”We’ve got more than one guest.” He throws her a warning glare and Roni knows she should be working right now.

”Hey look, chica, I gotta get back to work, but we’ll talk later, okay?” She reassures, brushing her hand over Emma’s before leaving suddenly.

”I liked the drink, by the way..!” Emma shouts after her and just before she disappears behind the bar, she turns around and blows her a kiss. The blonde feels like she’s melting on top of the table, but maybe it’s just the alcohol...

 

The night is still young. Emma watches how Roni brings drinks out to the other officers, offering free winks and lip bites every now and then. Running her slender, tan fingers over the men's thighs and talks to the ladies in the most seductive way. Emma on the other hand only receives a glance about every fifth minute if she’s lucky. She knows she shouldn’t be jealous, Roni is like this with everyone, it never means anything. Not to mention the pills she took earlier, they certainly had an effect on her too. Every move she makes gets more intimate for every minute that passes and it makes Emma squirm uncomfortably in her seat. The brunette suddenly walks over to the speakers to raise the volume of the Latin music playing and starts swaying her hips to the rhythmic melody. Normally, Roni listened a lot to rock and vintage music, but this seemed to be rooted in her DNA. She spontaneously steps up on a chair and grabs onto Mat’s shoulder, who offers her a hand to help her to get up onto the bar top. Emma leans back a tad, Roni’s heels are right in front of her nose, clicking as she moves on top of the speckled marble. She is good and she knows it. She pulls off a playful flamenco to the dynamic tune and makes it look easy. Emma watches her in awe, completely unaware of that she could dance. Killian leans in close to his wife’s ear,

 

“What is she really? A bartender or a stripper?” He chuckles but Emma isn’t the slightest amused. ”I bet one could get a private session for tipping some extra. She seems cheap.” Killian snorts. Emma still doesn’t respond, just keeps watching Roni enjoying herself on top of the bar. 

When the song is over and the officers have given Roni the standing ovations she deserves, she jumps down from the bar and walks straight up to the blonde on the other side as a new song comes on, not letting her go with her eyes for one second.

 

”May I?” She reaches out an open hand towards Emma and the officer just stares,

”Oh, uh- I-... I can’t dance.” She stutters, slightly panicking.

”Of course you can!” Roni insists and grabs her hand nonetheless and pulls her out on the open floor. She takes her hands into hers, nails slightly digging into her fingers as she pulls her closer.

”Now…” she begins and takes a step back with one of her feet, ”take a step towards me.”

Emma does as she says and steps back into Roni’s warmth. Roni does the same thing again but with her other foot and Emma follows.

”Aye, chica! You got it!” She cheers and steps closer to Emma, almost on her toes, ”Your turn.” Emma can feel her breath caressing her lips and it makes her heart flutter. She takes a step back.

”Like this..?” She asks under her breath and the bartender grins.

”Yes. Just like that.”

 

They do it all again and then Roni stops and places Emma’s hands on her hips and starts rolling them as she steps towards her again. The crowd around them whistles and Emma blushes, hard, and oh how she hates when, and how often, that happens. Roni’s hands travel up Emma’s sides and finally rest on top of her shoulders as they continue to move to the rhythm. Emma slowly starts moving her hips too and the smile of approval that spreads across the brunette’s face tells her she is doing it right. Everything is spinning. Probably because all she can focus on is the woman she’s holding on to and they are moving faster now. Emma sneaks her hands to the small of her back and brings her a tiny bit closer, just so that she can feel her warm breath against her lips again. She is _so_ close. The song is coming to an end and Roni lifts Emma’s hand up into the air as if to urge her to spin her around, so she does. She pulls her back just in time for the very last tone but just as she’s about to grab Roni for an end pose, the brunette crashes into her and their lips do just the same. The officers start cheering loudly, everyone except Killian. Emma’s eyes widen drastically and she’s almost about to pull back before realizing what’s happening. It wasn’t an accident, Roni was kissing her very much intentionally. The bartender slightly tilts her head to deepen the kiss, her hands run through Emma’s golden locks, gripping the roots to keep her in place but instead of taking it even further as her lips part very much like an invitation, she simply lets out a puff of air against pale lips before letting go. It’s over before she knows it. Emma lets go as if she’s hypnotized and Roni returns to the bar as if nothing happened. She runs a finger along her open mouth, what just happened?

 

“I don’t want your _dirty_ fucking hands on my wife!!”  
  
The familiar, dark voice wakes her from her thoughts and she turns around to find her husband clinging aggressively to Roni’s arm. Roni just cocks a brow and tries to jerk her arm out of his grip, but he’s mad and it makes him strong.

“Hey!! Let her go!” Emma yells and runs up to them, putting a hand on Killian’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.  

“If you _ever_ do that again,” Killian growls, glaring into the mocha eyes in front of him, “I will find out whatever is going on here and I will arrest you and all of your _trashy-_ ”

 

Before he gets to finish his sentence, Mat tramps up to them and pushes him away from Roni. He’s breathing heavier than a furious bull and steps in between them only to stare down on Killian who suddenly feels tremendously small. He doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to to make himself understood. Killian scoffs and turns around to walk towards the exit, knowing there’s no use to argue with a guy three times his size. Emma is still clinging to him and she throws an eye over her shoulder as he leads her out the doorway, Roni is looking back at her, offering her a gentle smile before they leave.


	8. Play Doctor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: Thank you SO much for the response I've gotten on this story! Every comment has made me so happy and motivated to continue with it! Keep spamming me with reviews, I love it! xx
> 
> I'm sorry that I'm not updating very often, I do plan on finishing both of my in-progress fics but it takes some time due to life, bear with me! ^^

”Didn’t I tell you to _stay away_ from that woman?!” Mat yells as the entrance door closes and all the cops are out of the building, ”She’s a cop _married_ to another cop! You seriously couldn’t be more up the creek kissing someone in that position.” He growls as he throws his hands in the air.

”It was just a part of the show, come on dude, calm down…” Roni whines, starting to clean up the spilled liquids on the bar top.

”You’re playing dangerous, stupid and completely unnecessary kind of games, young lady. This is risky for all of us,  not only you. Don’t make me have to take care of that _friend_ of yours…”

”Oh, don't you dare..!!” Roni warns and spins around to glare Mat deep into the eyes. She knew he was being serious. He wouldn’t have the slightest problem putting an end to a cop that knows too much. To be honest, the only reason he hadn’t already, is probably because he deep down knows that Roni genuinely cares about her. 

”Behave then.” He warns just as seriously and walks away to lock the door and put up the sign in the window. The brunette sighs and turns to count the money in the register. After a while, she starts to feel like every dollar seems heavier as she picks them up and puts them in the safe under the bar top. It’s heavier to breathe and small droplets are making her skin glistening at her temples. She stops and leans onto the bar to take a deep breath. ”Hey, did you take anything this week?” Mat suddenly asks, Roni throws him an offended glare and frowns,

“No, why?”

“You look like a ghost.”

“I told you, I’m sick.” Roni growls and continues to count the cash.

”... Did you check?”

”No.” She mumbles, ”there’s no need to.”

Mat steps up to her and grabs the bills in her hand to get her attention, she sighs and slams the register shut.

 

”This is no joke, R. We can’t take care of a baby around here and you can’t be a mother,” he snaps before he lowers his voice for the last word, ”as we already know.”

He can see through her eyes how her heart cracks a little. He had promised a long time ago not to talk about that. She is extra sensitive to this subject for a reason and he knows it. The bartender turns around and leaves, heading towards her room, refusing to have a conversation with him if he is going to be like this. But she doesn’t get far before she suddenly crumbles to the ground. Mat reacts to the sound of her body crashing to the wooden floor and jogs over to the corridor to find her out could, facing down.

 

”Hey..!” Mat kneels down and picks her up like a doll, all relaxed, arms dangling from his own. He lightly slaps her cheek a couple of times but receives no reaction. He reaches for the tap just above them, opens it, gathers some water in his hand and splashes it on her face. That certainly wakes her up. Scrunching her nose, trying to snort the water away she jerks from his grip and wipes her hands over her face to get it dry, ”Are you okay?”

She’s still dizzy and the back of her head hurts a little from the fall.

 

”I’m-... I guess… yeah.” She scratches the sore spot under her curly hair, only remembering how it all went black in mere seconds, ”I just haven’t eaten all day…”

Mat places one of his big hands on her forehead and frowns,

 

”You’ve got a fever.”

”I told you! If you had listened you would’ve known I’ve been sick since _yesterday_.” Roni exclaims and rolls her eyes tiredly, not ready to stand on her feet just yet.

”Okay, take the afternoon off, eat something, take a nap and them come back when the evening customers start rolling in. Since it's Friday, I will need your help.”

 

Roni nods and heads to her room for a few hours of well-needed sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

The first hour of the shift but she needs to talk to her. The brunette actually _kissed_ her, straight on the mouth, without hesitation as if she had been planning it for days and now she can’t stop touching her lips like she still can’t believe it happened. Her nails are lightly tapping the screen of the phone on the desk, considering whether to pick it up and call her or not, but when the last officer leaves the room she cannot stand the nerve wrecking silence and decides to go for it.

 

“Emma?” Roni answers softly, her voice husky as if she just woke her up, 

“What was that kiss for?” Emma asks bluntly, not wanting to waste another minute. Roni can hear the desperation in her voice, wanting to know what was really going on between the two of them right away.

“Part of the performance,” Roni states with a flat tone, not wanting to raise her expectations. She didn’t want Emma to get too close after all, she knows it could mess it up not only for herself but Mat too, considering their way of living, and not to mention Emma herself.

“Both you and I know that it was more than that…” Emma tries,

“Oh, do we now?” Roni cocks a brow, “For all I know I kiss a stranger every year after my salsa performance on the day of the dead. Though not necessarily a _married_ one…” she mocks, making it sound like Emma is the actual problem,

“But I’m no stranger to you. Am I?” The blonde asks, slightly upset, wanting Roni to just let those walls down and admit. Roni hesitates at first but her eyes land on the high stilettos by the door and she answers,

“Depends on how you define stranger.” 

The silence says more than Emma does and Roni is well aware that her words stung but also that it’s probably for the best.

 

“Well…” Emma begins but cannot find the motivation to continue explaining, “...Whatever." 

“Everyone are strangers at first,” The brunette says, “It doesn’t mean they’ll always be.” She tries, as if it was an attempt to regretfully save the situation she just caused.

“Hm.” Emma mutters and can hear how Roni inhales to say something but Emma interrupts her, ”I have to get to work, lady.”

Roni doesn’t want to plead, so she doesn’t ask her to stay on the phone a little longer as she would like her to.

 

”Fine.” She says flatly and before Emma has a chance to answer, she hangs up with a lump in her stomach, deeply regretting being so stubborn for the first time in her life.

 

Emma, on the other line, doesn’t hang up. She’s still listening to the empty sound echoing in the speaker after Roni hung up on her. Why was she like this? Playing hard to catch, pulling her in only to push her away. She was aware of that their relationship was a little complicated, that she wasn’t supposed to be friends with someone like Roni and to be honest, she couldn’t believe she had grown so fond of her that she chose their friendship over her duty. She had never done that for someone before. It was obviously stupid since the brunette now seems to think that they are nothing more than strangers to each other. Maybe she should get herself together, do her job and focus on her life with Killian. After all, he hasn’t been given a lot of attention these days because of that bartender, as if she means more to her than her own husband… Ridiculous.

 

* * *

 

Killian’s lunch has just started when he stumbles into his old friend Dr. Whale’s office and startles him as the door slams against the wall. He’s been furious about last night all morning and was determined to put an end to whatever was going on between his wife and that bartender. He doesn’t care what happens to Roni, all that matters is that his wife sees the truth and stays away from that woman and the bar. Victor Whale was a professional surgeon since years back and even though he is very good at what he’s doing, he has had a few incidents that made him end up at the station. Driving wasn’t his strongest suit. One time he had a date that didn’t go so well and ended up driving, drunk and crying, off the road and had to spend the night in a drunk tank where he met Killian. They became rather good friends and after hearing the story about how his date ‘Mary’ had just paid her food and left, Killian actually felt kind of sorry for him and said that he could let him out earlier on one condition - that he would be owing him a favor in the future, aka today,

 

”I need to ask you for that favor, pal.” Killian half whispers as he puts his hands and all his weight onto Whale’s desk. ”My wife is hanging out with people who she should stay far away from and I need proof to make her believe me.” 

”Okay..?” Whale looks utterly confused, ”How exactly can I help you with that?” 

Killian looks around to see if there are any ears around that can pick up on the information. They’re alone.

 

”I want you to walk up to the bartender at Mat’s, the woman with dark curly hair, and ask what you can get for, let’s say... five hundred dollars.” He says, but Whales just frowns, ”I am sure something shady is going on behind that bar counter and I’m going to find out what it is. You know money brings out the most in people, aye?”

”... Sure, I guess, if that’s all I have to do.” He shrugs and his answer puts a grin on Killian's face.

”Thanks, mate. Make sure to give me a call when you find out what it is she’s actually doing.” He says before he shoves a hand onto his back, walks out the door and gets back to work. Whale is still a bit unsure of the whole thing but shrugs and gets back to work as well, thinking it’s just a question, it’ll probably be a piece of cake.

 

 

Said and done, Doctor Whale steps across the threshold to Mat’s bar for the first time ever this evening. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into but he gets the feeling that it’s something he shouldn’t be involved in as he spots a huge brawny guy behind the bar, clothes hugging his strong body and tattoos crawling down his arms. He looks around for a while as he walks through the hallway and enters the pub. There’s another, younger guy cleaning an empty table a few meters away, a drunk guy by the bar and a cheesy couple by one of the tables. He walks up to the bar and sits down in one of the stools as far away from the intimidating bartender as possible. Finally, a brunette woman with curly hair, jeans, and a grey tank top makes an entrance, walking out from the kitchen and straight up to where he’s seated.

 

”Hey, what can I getcha?” She asks, thumbs in her back pockets of her denim pants.

”I’ll have a whiskey without ice, please.” He says as he studies the bartender who goes to get a glass to fill. She walks with confidence and a tint of slyness, something that intrigues him more than it probably should. She comes back with a glass half full of whiskey and pushes it across the bar top just far enough to touch his hand,

“That’ll be nine dollars, sir.” She says, acting more polite than she looks. He hands the money to her and she puts them straight into the register. He watches how she walks over to the bigger guy by the other end of the bar and says something before moving on to collect some of the glasses and bottles around the place. By the time she’s back, Whale has finished his whiskey and she takes a hold of his glass just as he opens his mouth,

 

“Hey, hot stuff…” he snaps in a whisper and it makes Roni’s head turn. He looks her up and down and bites his lip as he asks, “What can I get for another five hundred bucks..?”

Her eyes squint and she leans onto the bar in between them, intentionally showing off an inappropriate amount of cleavage.

“What’s on your mind, boy?” She muses, still rather expressionless, though, trying to figure out what kind of person he is.

”You tell me.” He winks and leans back in his chair.

”You a cop?” She asks bluntly, Whale scoffs and cracks a tiny smirk,

”I’m a doctor.”

 

Five hundred is a lot of money. And they look even better as he slides them towards her on top of the marble. She puts a hand on them to cover them from Mat’s sight. Her fingers linger on top of the dollar bills for a short moment before she grabs them and shoves them down her pocket.

 

”Where?” She asks shortly while she picks the tray back up and hands him a free beer to make it look like that’s what he bought. He grins,

”My car. Twenty minutes.”

 

She nods once before leaving. Whale takes a sip of the beer while considering actually going through with this purchase, even though that was not the plan from the beginning. The lady was attractive, after all.

  

Roni cleans the dishes and keeps an eye on the clock a little too intensively for Mat’s liking. He walks up to her as she throws an eye towards the clock on the wall for the seventh time in fifteen minutes,

 

“Plans?” He asks sternly and Roni snaps out of her thoughts for a moment,

“What- No, why?” She stutters and keeps scrubbing the glasses rapidly.

“You’re looking at that clock as if it was chasing you.” He states and leans into the sink right next to her, “where are you going?”

“It’s not your business. I’m off in five minutes, all you need to know is that these glasses are going to be clean by then and there’s nothing else to worry about.” She says and puts the last three of them into the hot water. Mat sighs loudly. He knows exactly what she is up to and it’s making him so frustrated to know that she’s not even _trying_ to stop.

“You _need_ to stop.” He grumbles in a low voice and Roni turns to him and snaps,

“No, What I _need_ is money.”

“You get money from working here?!” Mat reasons but Roni just laughs sarcastically,

“Maybe you should consider paying me better then, _boss_ , because it’s not even enough to buy me a bed to fuck in!” She throws the wet towel at him before leaving, heading to her room to fix her makeup the two minutes she’s got left before she needs to be outside. Mat throws the piece of fabric at the wall and it was just pure luck she gave him a towel and not one of the glasses…

 

—-

 

“Hey hey, kitty..!” The blonde man tantalizes out the side window of his black car that stands parked outside the bar. Roni approaches at a slow pace, taking her time smoking the cigarette she just lit. She keeps her eyes on him but doesn’t respond. While he’s busy smirking, Roni makes her way around the car and jumps into the passenger seat, without finishing the cigarette between her fingers,

“Let’s get outta here.” She sighs, sinking into the leather.

 

Whale eagerly starts the engine and takes them to a more private area, more specifically a parking lot that is dead at this time. While he’s driving Roni suddenly opens her mouth to speak,

 

”I have a couple of rules.” She says, Whale nods and throws an eye at her momentarily, ”First of all, I don’t kiss my clients under any circumstances and second, don’t record anything.”

”No problem.”

 

He parks the car in the darkest corner he can find and the bartender throws the cigarette butt out the window before, without hesitation, climbing over the seat to sit on the lap of the man next to her.

 

“So…” she murmurs, grabbing his chin between her fingers, “Who do you prefer being in charge, doctor?” Letting her nail run along his jaw, down his neck, and over his chest. He already looks nervous.

“Oh, I’d say you have the most experience so go ahea-“

 

Roni grabs the handle on the side of his seat and pulls it when he least expect it so that the seat launches backward and frees some space for her behind the steering wheel. Slowly, she crosses her arms, grabs the hem of her shirt and starts to teasingly pull it up over her body, leaving her naked skin exposed to the chilly air and darkening eyes before her. She’s not wearing any underwear, that would be unnecessary for the occasion. When she’s shirtless and her garments have been thrown aside, she grabs his jeans, unbuttons them and pulls down the zipper, all while she breathes in his ear to make his high pulse increase even more. He pulls them down to his knees before she gets down on her own, now having a ticklish hold of his boxers.

 “You’re all ready to go, aren’t you..!” She muses, running her slender fingers over his still covered, most sensitive areas, making him purse his lips and tilt his head back to not moan already. She pulls them down slowly, making every crease and edge of the garment tickle him in all the right places before she leads them down to the bend of his knees as well. She’s done this so many times before, it’s not even that bad anymore. It’s a job and that’s all it is. She leans forward, grabs the root of his erected sex and slides her hand in an up and down motion making Whale whine with anticipation. Noticing he’s getting a little impatient, she leans in even further and takes him in her mouth, ghosting her tongue over the tip, making his breathing shudder slightly. This was probably her least favorite thing about her job. When she was young and had just started selling herself in the streets, she gagged every time she had to give someone a blowjob. It even happened a couple of times that she threw up but she learned, got rid of those reflexes and eventually became really good at it. To be fair she never had a choice if she wanted to make money.

She doesn’t like the sound of him groaning as she takes him deep, he sounds like a dying animal but at least it confirms that he won’t demand his money back when it’s all over.

 

He has never in his life had a sensation like this. He knows this is what she does for a living and shouldn’t compare her to anyone else he had been with, but this girl knows how to please her clients, that’s for sure. Her hands are in all the right places, scraping lightly with her red nails along his length. The way her tongue swirls makes him crazy and he grabs onto the handle above the window for support and her head to thrust himself deeper down her throat, even though he doesn’t have to, he’s already there. He grunts and his spasming muscles tell her he is close, so she stops, wipes her mouth and crawls up to his level,

 

“If you want to fuck me that’s another hundred, mister.” She pants, licking the corner of her mouth while waiting for an answer.

“Uh- I-...” he stutters, trying to catch his breath, “Fine.” He breathes and hands her the money, quickly, to get it over with as soon as possible. She jumps over to her own seat momentarily and starts unbuttoning her jeans, lightly moaning while she does so to keep him aroused. She pulls them down and off and leaves them on the floor before getting on top of him again. Standing on her knees, she runs one hand around his head, into his hair, and another guides him right.

She’s not exactly dripping, obviously, so she desperately tries to think of something that turns her on and it’s probably the most difficult thing about this profession. For some reason, a certain blonde with toned arms and tight, blue jeans is the first thing that comes to her mind and she almost blushes at the thought. Strong arms that pin her down against her couch, using her handcuffs to cuff her hands together above her head, spreading her legs and makes wet traces with her pink lips down her stomach to her groin…

She lowers herself down on him, and as he moans he slides into her without effort, filling her completely the first thing he does. Roni moans too, imagining the blonde entering her with her slender fingers, moving her hand for more friction. She rolls her hips and Whale grabs onto them. She tilts her head down as she carefully lifts herself up to push him out a little before bucking her hips forward to thrust the blonde, which one of them barely matters anymore, back in. Considering the easiness of it all, she is certainly not as bored anymore. Her own imagination has gotten her in a way better mood. Her nails dig into his shoulders as she speeds up the pace, making him groan aloud in bliss. His hands are shivering against her full thighs and his breath shuddering against her bare collarbone. She groans, thinking about all the ways the blonde officer could please her. Eat her like a sweet dessert, pound into her with those beautiful fingers of hers until she screams, play with her tongue around the bundle of nerves currently aching for her until… She has to stop before she makes herself come undone. She is not going to let _this_ blonde have that. Her mind tumbles back into reality and she opens her eyes enough to see the sweaty man below her and instantly feels rather displeased. She keeps moving though, until he lets out a trembling yell as he explodes inside of her. At that moment she regrets letting him spill into her rather than using protection, it always gets so sticky and stale and this was no exception. Not to mention how expensive morning-after pills are. Stupid decisions aside, she has earned more than she usually does in one month and despite feeling slightly disgusted, she doesn't regret a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do intend to write more Emma/Roni scenarios, I just want you to get a better picture of Roni in general since she's completely different from on the show and there's a lot going on that I want you to understand before I get into the Bartender-Swan stuff, lol! xx


	9. Slowly Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lil bit of angst ahoy!

Roni is sitting outside, at the back of the building atop a big trash container, feeling nothing but sick to her stomach. Her throat still felt sore and her energy is lower than yesterday. She doesn’t know where this illness came from. It didn’t seem contagious and it didn’t want to go away. She thought she might need some air to ease the sickness but the only thing it really does is make her freeze her ass off. She shuffles down the green plastic and her feet hit the concrete below. She walks back into her room and is just about to get out of her leather jacket when the door to the bar slams wide open. She looks up and finds a face she did not expect to see in her doorway, ever.

 

“Killian?” She frowns, not sure if he’s here for good or bad. Just as she sets eyes on him, he approaches her, grabs a strong hold of her upper arm and spins her around.

 

“You’re under arrest for illegal sexual services, more specifically prostitution. You have the right to remain quiet, everything you say can and will be used against you.” He roughly pulls her hands to the small of her back and cuffs them before turning her back around to push her towards the exit. Roni barely has time to react, it all happens so fast.

 

“Oh, believe me you don’t want to do this. Mat is going to snap that little neck of yours..!” She tries but the officer keeps pushing her out of the room and through the corridor that leads out to the bar. Mat throws his gaze towards them just as they come around the corner and his eyes grow just slightly as he spots the handcuffs around Roni’s wrists. He takes a step towards them but Killian puts a hand in the air,

 

“If you take a step closer, I will call for reinforcement. I have reasonable grounds for arresting her and she’s coming with me whether you like it or not, big guy.” Killian warns and keeps his eyes on Mat as he continues to force the bartender out the door. Mat stops. Roni looks at her boss with slight panic now, realizing he’s not going to save her ass this time. Her eyes are pleading and her heart is racing, but Mat just watches as she’s taken out of there. Was she going to end up in jail now? Were these her last days of freedom and she spent them fucking some disgusting pervert and fighting with Emma? Killian shoves her into the backseat of the police car and walks around to get in and start the vehicle. Roni is just quiet and stares grumpily out the window as he starts driving but after a while she realizes that he’s not heading towards the station, as the surroundings start looking more and more familiar. These are Venom’s streets. The block she was told to avoid completely and forever. She had only been here when his companions had taken her away to one of their allies to threaten her without an unwanted audience.

 

”Where are we going?” Roni suddenly asks and sits up a little straighter, feeling rather anxious. He stops right after the question leaves her mouth, along the sidewalk. The streets look unusually empty but it’s most likely because of the very indiscreet car that just pulled up in their territory. When the cops are gone, they always come creeping out from their dark corners like wild animals. Killian gets out and jerks the door open before snatching her out again. Without warning, he slams her back against a brick wall, that causes her to drastically lose her breath.

 

”Give me your phone. Delete _all_ numbers and contact information you have to my wife and do it quickly because I don’t have all day.” He snaps, leaning over her, one hand against the wall behind her. Roni just stares at him, eyebrows almost meeting her eyes in anger. ”Are you completely deaf? Give me your phone!” He yells and when he leans closer Roni has had enough. She spits him in the face and it makes him shy back, not able to see before he has wiped his face. ”Oh you-!” Roni’s expression stays the same, she’s not scared of him, only of being locked up forever. He forcefully shoves his hand down her pocket on her floral jacket and even though she fights back he succeeds to get a hold of her phone.

 

“Hey!!”

 

”I’m taking that.” He says and grabs onto her jacket in the back. She’s small compared to him and no matter how much she struggles, he’s in charge. They walk just about a hundred meters before they get to an alley where he violently throws her to the rock hard concrete. ”She’s all yours.” His words echo between the walls. The brunette looks up from where she’s lying but can’t see anyone around. Killian spins around and heads towards the car, driving away quicker than Roni can get on her feet. It’s quiet now and she takes her eyes off the speeding vehicle and back to the darkness of the ally again. Finally, one… two… three… Five men come walking out from behind the trash cans, piles of garbage and bricks. Roni recognizes them all. It was the same people who beat her up the last time she refused to tell them where Mat was at. She isn’t a coward, the opposite in fact, but she knows that the only way she can prevent it from happening again is to run. So she does. She takes off as soon as she spots them and they rush after her like a pack of carnivores. She runs as fast as she can, with all her might, but it just isn’t enough. They’re closing up on her and she knows it, she can hear it. Just as she’s about to take a turn, someone grabs her jacket and pulls her backwards with such power, she falls and hits her head on the ground. Dizzy, but still awake, she opens her eyes and sees only sky and three heads hovering above her.

 

”We meet again, Ronita!” One of them mocks, smirking widely as he descends into a crouching position next to the brunette, who rolls her eyes with the last effort she’s got. ’Ronita’ was the prettiest nickname they had given her so far. They always bullied her for her hispanic roots, calling her beaner, spic and all kinds of dirty slurs they could come up with. It made no sense to her since Venom himself was Mexican, but she figured they probably take it out on her just because they can’t do it to him. The man on her right grabs her jaw and directs her gaze to him,

 

”I heard you have been naughty and is in need of punishment.” He muses, ”A _married_ _cop_ , huh? Living on the edge I hear!” His laughter makes her burn with irritation and her nostrils flare as he talks, ”Now, you may want to tell us if your _boyfriend_ is working alone at the moment, while you’re out here having a good time with us.”

Roni is quiet.

 

”Don’t try me.” He clicks his tongue, tilting his head a little. She still doesn’t answer, but takes her eyes off of him. A loud thud echoes around the block as a foot hits her stomach and a guttural moan escapes her curled up body. It feels like her lungs shrink, like she can’t breathe anymore, they just won’t expand when she tries. Another hard kick, but to her back, makes her back arch and her teeth clench together as another loud whail leaves her vocal chords. A fist crashes down her face, leaving a cracked lip and a swelling cheekbone, she doesn’t hold the air to make a sound at that. Another one. Blood runs from the corner of her mouth and drips onto the hard ground. This is worse than last time and the only thought she’s got running through her mind right now is whether she’s going to survive or not. Someone grabs the front of her shirt and shakes her violently, but she’s in too much pain to react to it.

 

“Last chance, whore. It’s a simple question. _Is he alone?_ ” He asks again. She just breathes heavily to regain oxygen to her spinning head, “No?”

 

She closes her eyes. She’s on the verge of not caring if they decide to kill her because she is in so much pain, she just wants it to end. He stands up straight again and launches a foot at her once more. The impact is loud, but she doesn’t make a sound, just feels how the last bit of air painfully drains from her chest. Suddenly, the sound of sirens makes the group look at each other and split up fast as lightning, leaving Roni alone, bruised and bloody on the dirty sidewalk. The sirens goes silent and a door flies open. The voice that comes closer sounds very familiar to the brunette, but considering her current state she cannot really recall who it belongs to.

 

“ _Hey!! Come back!_ ” The female voice yells as she comes running towards the seemingly lifeless body on the ground. All the men are out of sight within seconds and are definitely not coming back. As the woman comes closer she’s able to put all her focus on the hurt person in front of her, but just as her eyes land on her very familiar jacket, she exclaims,

 

“Roni?!”

 

It’s Emma. She rushes up to her friend and throws herself on her knees as she reaches her. She carefully moves away the strands of curly hair covering her face, puts a finger under her chin and gently tilts her head up a little.

 

“Oh god, what happened to you..?!” She tries to scoop her up somehow but is afraid of hurting her even more. The brunette suddenly starts to cough and she rolls over on her back, her expression full of agony.

“Here…” Emma soothes, and grabs a hold under her arms to pull her up to rest her head on her lap. Roni scrunches her face in pain as she does so. “Where does it hurt?”

“... Ribs.” she pants and tries to put a hand onto the hurting area but only makes it worse and winces at the sensation.

“Let me!” Emma insists and pulls her shirt up a little just so that she can see if it’s externally visible. It is. She’s got a deep purple bruise covering a big area of her ribcage. “You’ve most likely broken one or two of them…” Emma mumbles, concerned. “Let me take you to a hospital.” But Roni shakes her head decidedly and Emma sighs.

 

It’s silent around them. Roni’s back and back of her head are warm against Emma’s thighs and her breath is shuddering as she slowly but surely regains the ability to breathe properly. The blonde looks down at the exhausted woman on her lap and hesitatingly, carefully moves her hand to play with the dark curls spread out across her jeans.

 

“What do you want me to do?” She asks in almost a whisper, and it takes a moment for Roni to answer,

“Just take me home.”

”I better just take you to my place so that I can have a real look at that.” Emma says as she’s gotten Roni into the seat next to hers and started the car, ”you might have internal bleedings and in that case it doesn’t matter what opinion Mat has about local hospitals.” She mutters.

Roni just groans, out of pain and frustration, and maybe even a little relief that someone was willing to take her to a real hospital for once.

 

When they arrive the door to the big, grey house is open. Emma’s got a hold around the brunette, supporting her as carefully as she can without touching the left side of her ribcage. They stumble in through the hall and she helps Roni to lie down on the couch in the living room.

 

”There…” she soothes and kneels down next to her to pull up her shirt again. The bruise is in an incredibly deep shade of purple and covers most of the side of her chest. She has a hard time breathing, every breath feels like a stab from the inside out.

 

”Yeah…” Emma mumbles as she examines the injured area without touching it, ”It looks pretty bad, Roni.”

 

Suddenly, a voice makes a surprising appearance in the doorway to the living room,

”What the hell is _she_ doing in our house?!” Killian spits as he looks down at the hurt bartender on the couch, ”Are you here to steal our money? Offer us drugs? Oh, or maybe _fuck my_ _wife?_ ”

”Hey! Stop it!” Emma snaps and turns to face her husband. Roni just groans and makes the closest to an eye roll she can manage right now. Of course _he_ was here.

”I don’t want you to spend time with such scum, even less bring one into our home!” He growls as if Roni isn’t right next to them. 

”She is my _friend_ Killian and she’s got a name.” Emma growls and her husband takes a step closer,

”She is _not_ your friend and she’s getting out of here as soon as she can walk again.” He snaps back and Emma just turns back to Roni, trying to ignore the furious man behind her. Roni has got her eyes closed, not even wanting to look at him.

”Does it hurt if I-”

” _AAH!!_ Dammit, Emma!” She yelps and throws her head back in agony.

”I’m sorry!! I’m so, so sorry!” The blonde exclaims and with a worried look on her face, she touches her chest more carefully this time. Roni hisses through her teeth but lets Emma continue despite the discomfort. ”I… I can’t really say if there’s any damage to your internal organs. It would be best if I drove you to the hospital and let them check.” 

Roni nods approvingly and Emma pulls her shirt back down.

”I’ll run upstairs and get you some painkillers to keep you sane on the way there. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.” Emma says and looks at both of them before running up the stair. Roni’s gaze finally lands on the man above her,

”I could report you for false accusations, _cop_ . You had _no_ proof when you arrested me this morning, did you now?” Roni snarls. Killian scoffs and confidently slides his hands down his jeans pockets,

”You tried to force your dirty services onto a close friend of mine, so yes, I had very good reasons to arrest you _plus_ an alibi.” He spits, ”Now you know what happens when you touch my wife, _slut_. You should be thankful I haven’t thrown you in jail yet.”

 

That particular word stings even though she hears it often and to be completely fair, it’s probably because it’s true. She _is_ a slut, a whore, a call girl, promiscuous, a prostitute, whether she wants to fully admit it to herself or not, but she doesn’t need someone to throw it in her face.

 

“Besides, what do you owe Venom and his guys?” Roni frowns angirly, “Can’t be very legal business...”

“I don’t owe them anything.” He shrugs, “We made a deal.” 

Just as she’s about to come with a response, the blonde comes running down the stairs and they both remain quiet. 

”Okay, here you go,” she hands a pill over to Roni and puts the rest in her pocket, ”Ready to go?”

The brunette nods and Emma pulls her up from the couch.

”Yeah. Get her out of here before I do.” Killian grumbles before leaving the room with one last glare. Emma just shakes her head and pulls the brunette up from the couch before getting into the car again.

 

* * *

 

When they arrive at the hospital Emma gets out to open the door for Roni and help her out, but the pain is too much to handle and Roni just shakes her head as the blonde wraps an arm around her,

 

“It’s not far, we just need to get through the doors and they will help you the rest of the way.” Emma tries but the brunette’s deep frown and irregular breathing tells her that there’s no use to try to force her up on her feet. Instead, she wraps one arm around her chest and another in the bend of her knees to lift her out of the vehicle and carry her to the entrance. Roni doesn’t argue, but lets her hold her all the way through the doors. An older lady in the reception immediately reacts to the struggling blonde and the limp brunette in her arms and gets up from her chair.

 

“Stay there! I’ll get someone who can help you.” She points at the couch right next to the entrance and Emma carefully puts the wincing bartender down onto it before joining her. 

“Does it hurt..?” Emma asks quietly. She knows it does, but she just wants to show some kind of affection. Roni nods, in too much pain to speak, ”It’ll be alright. Just don’t hang out in those neighborhoods again…” 

Roni doesn’t respond. She knows that Emma won’t believe her if she tells her the truth about how she ended up there in the first place. Besides, she doesn’t want to cause any trouble for her. Just a minute later a nurse comes up with a wheel hair to them, that the brunette refuses to sit in, so instead they grab an arm each and helps her walk to the room they’ve got prepared for her. Just as she’s led through the doorway, Emma’s phone rings and she picks up quickly when she sees that it’s from work. Roni throws her a glance but doesn’t bother trying to listen to the conversation as the blonde takes a step back into the corridor not to disturb anyone. By the time Roni has gotten to lie down and the nurse has carefully pushed her shirt up, Emma comes back in, sliding the phone down her pocket.

 

”I have to get back to work. Some nut job has broken into a jewelry store and gotten stuck in the broken window on the way out…” Emma rolls her eyes before throwing the brunette an apologetic look, ”Will you be fine without me?”

The question makes Roni want to say no for some reason, as if she needed Emma right now. What a ridiculous thought. Had she gone soft now? No way. She nods and watches how the blonde turns around and leaves after offering her a soft smile. It stings a little more in her ribcage than it’s supposed to.

As if the blonde had never been there, the nurse starts to ask the brunette questions,

“So, Roni, how did this happen?” She asks while examining the bruised area, “A fistfight? Your lip doesn’t look very well either.” Roni just shrugs for an answer.

“I’m gonna push and squeeze a little now, tell me if and where it hurts, okay?” Roni nods and as soon as the nurse’s fingertips touches her skin she winces and pulls air through her teeth, “is it the rib?” 

“I think so…” Roni breathes, “My whole damn side hurts…” 

“I’m gonna need some x-ray scans and make a general health examination if that’s okay with you?”

“I have a bit of an.. odd request.” The brunette interrupts, “My…” she will regret saying this for as long as she’s alive, “... partner, is worried he knocked me up, could you just… Check that quickly?”

“Of course. We’ll able to detect that as we see into your general health status.” She smiles reassuringly. Roni nods and mumbles an ’okay’ before the nurse helps her up to go to the x-ray room. Every step hurts but eventually she manages to get to the room and lie down once again. Pictures are taken and she’s taken back to the room she was first introduced to while the nurse walks in and out, bringing papers, scans and tools into the room.

“So…” she begins to get Roni’s attention, “We can establish that you’ve got a rib fracture on the left side of your chest. It will heal by itself within a one to two months period. I strongly recommend painkillers during this time.” She informs whilst putting on a pair of plastic gloves.

”I’m gonna need a couple of blood samples as well.” She says as she prepares a needle and a small tube to connect to it, ”Are you scared of needl-” She doesn’t finish the sentence since she has turned Roni’s arm around and found the needle scars covering most of it. She doesn’t say anything but Roni tries to break the awkward silence by letting out a chuckle,

”It’s okay. I’m not.” The nurse nods and carefully pushes the needle through her skin. Roni doesn’t even blink.

 

The whole procedure runs smoothly, all the tests are done and the nurse walks out of the room to collect the results. Roni is left alone for a while and during that time she rolls up her shirt a bit to look at the bruise that she hasn’t seen with her own eyes yet. It’s big, and it hurts as much as you think it would when you see it. One rib short, she can handle that. 

The same nurse finally enters the room wearing half a smile on her face somewhat worried features,

 

“We took a whole lot of tests and we can conclude that you’re not pregnant,” she starts and Roni sighs in relief before she notices that the nurse wasn’t finished yet, “however…” she continues and takes a seat besides the brunette who gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right, “The blood samples we took shows that, uhm…” she anxiously browses among her papers, rereading what she regrets having to reveal, “you’re infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.”

“And what is that in English?” Roni asks, nonchalantly.

 

“It means that you’ve got HIV.”

 

Her heart skips a beat. She knows she didn’t hear that wrong. She heard it loud and clear, she just doesn’t want to believe it. She knows she brought this upon herself. If she didn’t have the lifestyle that she does, she wouldn’t ever have had to hear these words. She doesn’t say anything and the nurse lays a hand on her shoulder,

“You will get prescription medicine and papers with all the information you need about the virus. There are laws that require you to disclose your status to any future sexual partners to prevent transmission and there are support groups that you can join if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to and share this with. You’re not alone, Roni.”

 

She never cries and she’s not gonna do it now either, but she can feel how her throat burns and her breath hitches when the nurse says her name after all of that information. She doesn’t look at the woman in front of her, but she doesn’t seem to take any offense. She must be used to handing out bad news like this to irresponsible people like her. This was a deadly virus. She was never going to get rid of it and she will need medicine for the rest of her life. What will Mat say? How is she going to tell him? Or Emma? Or anyone? The last thing she wants is to get dismissed and thrown out into the streets again. Or get rejected by the ones she holds dear. She takes a deep shuddering breath,

 

”... Will I die from it?” She asks, and the nurse tilts her head just a bit. 

”HIV is incurable, but if you take your medicine and get the right treatment you should be able to live a long and healthy life.”

”That’s not what I asked.” Roni grumbles. The nurse sighs,

”It’s a fatal virus, yes.” She watches pitifully how Roni squirms in her seat, trying to hold her emotions back, before she continues, ”However, we’re talking about a lifetime of the average person. You should be able to live another forty years with today's modern treatment methods. You can pick up your medicine at any pharmacy if you bring the prescription. It will be alright.”

 

Roni just sighs, shakily, her throat still burning. The nurse places a hand on her back soothingly, before making her way to hold the door for the brunette. Roni mumbles a ‘thanks’ before she limps past her, leaves and heads home by foot. She couldn't care less about the broken rib, she needs the air right now anyways. She kicks every rock her feet come across on her way home. It doesn’t help to try to think about something else, her stomach turns with each and every thought she tries to put on her mind and no matter how much she tries to convince herself that it’s not the end of the world, it still certainly feels like it. The papers in her hand are creased from her tense grip and as she’s getting closer to the building where the green sign is hanging, she just can’t take another step. She takes a deep breath, tries to gather herself, but the panic is too overwhelming and she runs her hands through her thick curls while she spins around as if to try to find some kind of physical way out of this. But there is none, obviously. She shoves the wrinkly, folded papers down her pocket of her jacket before she reluctantly walks the last bit to the pub.

Mat can’t know. Emma _absolutely_ can’t know.


	10. Irish Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So sorry I haven’t been able to update for ages!! I do update slowly but SURELY and I want you to know that I’ve got a few ideas and plots up my sleeve and I hope you’ll stay with me for the upcoming chapters! Thank you for your patience! xx

The door to the pub opens, carefully but the bell still pings and catches Mat’s attention. Roni is limping into the bar, one hand around her rib and one shoved deep down her pocket, making sure the papers stay there.

“How did it go?” Mat asks flatly while polishing a whiskey glass with a towel. Roni takes a deep breath before she makes eye contact with her boss,

“Alright. A broken rib.” She shrugs before heading towards her room. She isn’t in the mood for small talk. She doesn’t get far though before Mat lightly grabs her arm to get her attention. Roni spins around and glares at the man next to her, slightly afraid her nervosity will cause suspicions.

“What did they say?” He asks, actually sounding genuinely concerned.

“Nothing important…” She quirks a brow, putting up a wall to hide her anxiousness.

“Hey.” Mat’s fingertips ghosts her arm as she’s about to walk past him and his gentle touch makes her slow down, “How do you feel?” Her eyes meet his,

“I just need to rest, that’s all. It will heal by itself within two to three months they said…” Roni mumbles, it’s not the end of the world.” She walks by and continues towards her room, actually regretting not taking the chance to talk to him when he seemed so genuinely caring. But what would she say? What would he do if he found out she had a life threatening, contagious virus that means she will need medication for the rest of her life? And on top of that, probably transmitted the virus onto clients she’s had over the last months. She doesn’t even know how long she has had it or who gave it to her, but it was a fact and no surprise that she has got it. She knows that the medications will initially make her feel terrible and is in _no_ mood for that right now and decides to skip them tonight. One night without them won’t kill nobody. What she really needs though is a shower. Not that she can wash it off but maybe, at least, some of the guilt and self hatred.

—-

 

He was jealous. She understood that now. Ever since high school he would had a problem with people loving the opposite sex. Emma couldn’t even hang out with her best friend, who was a lesbian, without making Killian jealous and try to convince her that her friend was attracted to her in a “sinful kind of way”. That wasn’t true but Killian was so sure of it. That’s probably why he disliked Roni so much after she kissed her in the bar, apart from the fact that it was his wife.

Emma’s thoughts are everywhere although she should focus on work right now. They have gotten lots of reports the last twenty four hours and everyone are on their toes all over the station, except Emma. She just can’t get her mind off the strange situation she’s in right now. Honestly, she has felt pretty lonely since they moved to Hyperion Heights here in Seattle and just wanted to make new friends, but since Killian was so paranoid, it has been hard. She can’t hang out with other men without having Killian call her every second minute, or go to parties without his company, not to _mention_ being friends with a lesbian. She has tried to reason with him but he always ends up grumpy the rest of the day and she rather avoids that than keeps trying to convince him about something that he refuses to acknowledge.

There are three reports on her desk that she’s responsible for for the next few weeks. One is about a robbery in a jewelry store in the middle of the city where a man dressed in a blue hoodie stole an yet unknown amount of money and watches, one about a driver high on methamphetamine who took another car before driving into a tree on the side of the road, and the last one is an anonymous report from someone claiming there’s an prostitute, withholding information of her sexually transmittable, lethal virus status; which is breaking the law twice, still out in the streets and needs to be arrested and put behind bars not only for transmitting it to her clients but also for her illegal business.

Emma sighs. These people. What’s so hard about obeying the law nowadays? She shoves the papers aside, her head is killing her, it's been an intense day but it was just minutes left of her shift. Her thought drifts off to the bartender who she left at the hospital. How did she get home? Was she okay? Was it just a broken rib or did she have internal bleedings and needed surgery? Was she even back home yet? She picks up her phone. No new messages or missed calls. She isn’t sure if she should expect her to get back about how things had gone or reassure her that she has arrived back home safely. They weren't _that_ close after all.

Maybe she should go there? Just ask Mat if she’s back? Or was that too intrusive? She looks at the clock hanging on the wall in front of her. It’s been three hours since she left her at the hospital. What if something actually happened, and here she sits, waiting for a text message? No. She should go there, no matter how it will look. Better safe than sorry.

She grabs the car keys from the table and gets up from her chair, grabs her red jacket and head out to her car.

 

It’s about a ten minute drive, not too far, but long enough to be unable to say that she was just passing by. When she arrives she parks the bug right outside and walks straight in. Mat is cleaning the countertop.

She doesn’t know how to do it smoothly and decides to just walk over and be her normal self, that she knew Mat wasn’t really a fan of. What does it matter though? She is here for Roni and doesn’t give a shit what Mat thinks about her in all honesty.

 

”Hey,” she begins, ”Is Roni back from the hospital? Is she okay?” She asks casually and slides into a chair by the bar, hoping Roni would appear within sight and interrupt this awkward conversation that was about to start. She looks around but can’t see a single trace of the bartender. To be fair, she’s probably resting in her room after this bewildering day, regardless of what kind of damages she had brought upon herself.

”Why?” Mat asks flatly, clearly not very fond of Emma’s presence.

”I’m worried about her.” She frowns, trying to make it obvious she only wants to check on her.

”You don’t need to worry about her. She should be worried about _you_.” Mat snarls, giving her an unamused glare.

“I’m not going to arrest her, or hurt her in any way for that matter…!” She tries but Mat ignores her, “Come on man, what problems have I caused up till now, despite everything I know?” His wet towel suddenly comes splashing down onto the counter between them before he lets go and leans onto the marble surface with both hands, starting her into her eyes,

“You’re snooping around this bar like it is some fucking crime scene, lady! Give it a rest, give us a break and leave my staff alone.” He growls before heading towards the kitchen, leaving her speechless in her chair. This dude is impossible. Despite his words, she gets up and walks through the corridor next to the bar and up to Roni’s door. It stands slightly ajar so she decides to innocently push it open and hopefully make her happily surprised, but she walks straight into the room only to find Roni standing topless in a pair of thongs, just about to get dressed and the blonde freezes in her spot before her eyes grow wide,

“ _Oh!_ ” The yelp escapes her throat before she can to stop it and the almost completely naked bartender  snaps her head around, brows raised in surprise. The blonde immediately spins back around and rapidly steps out the door before she hears a husky voice call after her,

“No, come back here, it’s fine! Don’t be shy.”

Emma sighs, shuts her eyes closed and shamefully enters the room again, struggling to not look the appealing brunette in front of her from top to toe but it’s impossible not to steal a glimpse every now and then as she squeezes into her tight garments. Half of her chest is in a purple shade. Halfway into her sleeveless black shirt, she breaks the silence,

“Like what you see..?” She melodically drawls in a teasing manner and pulls her shirt down painfully slow just to expose as much skin as she can manage for as long as possible and Emma's eyes suddenly flutter before she drastically averts her gaze.

“Sorry I- You’re the only person in the room. What do you expect me to look at?” She mutters before slouching down into the chair by the writing desk. Roni offers a devious smirk over her shoulder as she lets out a deep chuckle that makes Emma feel the need to cross her legs. When Roni has gotten her shirt on, she is about to reach for her jeans but is interrupted as the blonde opens her mouth,

”What’s this?” Roni turns around to the sound of Emma’s curious voice and finds the blonde holding a golden necklace with a heart charm in her hand. Fast as lightning she steps forward and snatches it away from her. Emma is shying back in surprise, hands still in front of her as if the jewelry never left them, ”Oh I’m… sorry.” She frowns as Roni puts it back in the drawer Emma had found it in and shoves it closed.

”Stop snooping around.” The brunette mumbles, annoyed but also slightly nervous. Emma’s eyes follow her as she

“How’s the bruise?” She asks to break the awkward silence that just occured. Roni sighs and continues to get dressed, not very comfortable with the blonde’s handsyness, ”Considering you’re back home I’m guessing you’ll live…” She’s trying to lighten up the mood but it’s not really working for some reason.

“It’s fine. Just a broken rib.” She answers shortly just as she’s done, clapping her hands onto her thighs as she turns to her guest, in an attempt to change the subject, “Would you like something to drink? I’m thirsty.”

Emma looks her up and down. Damn was she thirsty. _No Swan._

She shakes her head and takes a deep breath to gather herself before she speaks,

“Why do we have to drink all the time?” Roni cocks a brow at her, “Can’t we just stay here and talk over… like, a coffee or something?”

”Irish coffee it is then!” Roni exclaims and walks, slightly limping, out the room. Emma's eyes roll heavily. She has realised long ago that Roni is on the verge of an alcoholic, but she rather stays away from becoming it herself.

When the brunette’s footsteps have faded, Emma takes the opportunity to sneakily open her drawer again. She’s too curious now to let it be. She picks up the little chain with the golden heart again and holds it up in front of her to see it better. It’s a child’s necklace. It doesn’t really look used, it has no scratches or flaws. It doesn’t say anything on it, it’s just plain. Her gaze falls back down into the drawer and finds a photo laying upside down, but just as she’s about to turn it, the footsteps comes back within hearing distance and the blonde quickly, quietly puts the jewelry back in the exact same spot, before closing the drawer and position herself to look as innocent as possible. Roni comes in with two big glasses in her hands, both of them decorated with cream and a fancy spoon-straw made of steel.

”There you go, officer..!” She grins, leaning onto her hip as she’s handing it over. Emma just shakes her head but grabs the hot drink nonetheless. Roni goes to sit on her chabby, red, leather couch while Emma takes a sip. She doesn’t want to invade her privacy in any way really. Well, to be fair she’s already done it in secret, but she just can’t help but try to get some more fact about her slip out her mouth,

“Do you have any family around here? I’m sorry, it’s a random question, I just-“

Roni shakes her head,

“No.” She answers simply. Emma looks at her for a second before her gaze goes back to her drink when the brunette looks quite displeased with the question.

”Do you know anyone around here except from Mat and the staff?”

”My old roommates,” she shrugs, ”why are you asking?”

”No, I just-” She sighs, ”... I don't know much about you. I guess I’m just trying to small talk, start a conversation...” She chuckles. It wasn’t a lie, but she can’t deny the fact that she’s really curious about that drawer and therefore the questions. Roni snorts but cracks a smile,

“Chica entrometida…” she mumbles. Emma has no idea what it means but she doesn’t even mind asking. She assumes it’s something sassy that would only make her roll her eyes.

”It’s late…” Emma sighs, Roni’s eyes meet hers, ”I should get going.” The brunette smiles at her and nods once,

”Before your husband comes over and arrests me for kidnapping.” She can’t help but chuckling, and Emma joins soon thereafter.

”Take care of you, don’t do anything stupid…” Emma begs softly as she gets up from where she’s sitting and Roni grins,

”Can’t promise the last part.”

Emma just shakes her head. She should know her by now.

—-

 

 _”You’re_ **_pregnant_ ** _?!” Minnie’s brows are deeply furrowed in anger as she glares at the teenager in front if her, ”Are you kidding, Roni?!” The brunette shakes her head, sobbing distressfully, knowing that they’re in no way capable of taking care of a baby or pay for an abortion. A hand flies through the air and smacks her across the cheek. Strands of her long, curly hair hits her face soon thereafter, sticks to her skin; wet from tears._

 _”I taught you_ **_everything_ ** _. There shouldn’t even be a chance in hell for you to get knocked up!” She yells, throwing her hands in the air as she talks. It was true. Minnie had taught Roni everything about this industry. What and what not to do, how to do it and how to be the best at it. She knew about payment, safety, self defence and even protection, yet something must have gone wrong at some point._

 _”So what now, kid? You’re gonna be a mother? You’re_ **_sixteen_ ** _for god’s sake!!”_

_”I don’t know…” She quietly whimpers, trying to get the hair out of her face, still sobbing. She had no idea. She didn’t want to be a mother. She didn’t want this child. She never asked for any of this._

_”Well figure it out then because I’m not going to waste a single cent on you and your mistakes!” A pink nail is pointed straight at her and pink lips are pursed into a straight line before the older woman turns to open the front door to their apartment. They have kept the conversation in the hallway to prevent Martha from overhearing it. They wouldn’t want to give her a stroke; finding out the youngest of them had accidentally gotten herself knocked up while working. She was old enough to know where this would end up and if it was anyone Roni would be heartbroken to upset, it was Martha. Her street mother, her rock. The closest to family she had. She didn’t want to ever have to tell her, even though she knew she would have to, eventually. Minnie turns to Roni one last time before entering the bathroom and zips her mouth with her fingers, gesturing that she should keep quiet about it for now. The younger woman doesn’t respond but her sad eyes says she has understood and Minnie closes the door._

_“Fighting?” Joe mumbles from where he’s sitting with a joint sticking out of his mouth. Roni walks over to the sofa by the window and sits down next to him. She shakes her head,_

_“No,” she starts fiddling with the zipper in her oversized hoodie, “Just talking.”_

_“Ah… I see,” He mumbles while digging his hand down his jeans pocket, “Here, something to make you relaxed, kid.” He reaches out a joint. To his surprise, Roni scrunches her nose and shakes her head._

_“Ugh, that shit stinks…” she grumbles, feeling the nausea creep up on her._

_____ __________

 

That night, Roni opens the drawer and picks the little necklace up into her hand; looks for any kind of damage before closing her hand and taking it to the couch where she sleeps. She lies down and puts it under the pillow, never letting it go as she drifts off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! I love to hear your opinion, it's my fuel! xx


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